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^    2},  Jr.   M'^^i^- 


GIFT   OF 

THOMAS  RUTHERFORD  BACON 
MEMORIAL  LIBRARY 


^AUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 


FROM 


HENRY    DRUMMOND 


ARRANGED  BY 

ELIZABETH    CUEETON 


The  invisible  things  of  God  from  the  creation  of  the  world 
are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things  that  are 
made.— Rom.  i.  20. 


NEW  YORK 

JAMES   POTT  &  CO.,   PUBLISHERS 

1893 


Copyright,  1892,  by 
JAMES   POTT    &   CO. 


TROl*  DIRECTORY 

PRINTING  AND  BOOKBINDING  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK 


4 


MY  DEAR  FRIEND 

HELEN   M.    ARCHIBALD 

THIS  BOOK 
IS  AFFECnONATELY  INSCRIBED 


272586 


PREFACE. 

My  first  tliought  of  writing  out  this 
little  book  of  brief  selections  sprang  from 
the  desire  to  assist  a  dear  friend  to  enjoy 
the  Author's  helpful  books. 

The  epigrammatic  style  lends  itself  to 
quotation.  Taste  of  the  spring  brings 
the  traveller  back  to  the  same  fountain 
on  a  day  of  greater  leisure.  Many  times 
these  "  Beautiful  Thoughts "  have  en- 
lightened my  darkness,  and  I  send  them 
forth  with  a  hope  and  prayer  that  they 
may  find  echo  in  other  hearts. 

E.  C. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/beautifulthoughtOOdrumrich 


JANUARY. 


January  ist. 

Christianity  wants  nothing  so  much 
in  the  world  as  sunny  people,  and  the 
old  are  hungrier  for  love  than  for  bread, 
and  the  Oil  of  Joy  is  very  cheap,  and  if 
you  can  help  the  poor  on  with  a  Gar- 
ment of  Praise  it  will  be  better  for  them 
than  blankets. 

The  Programme  of  Christianity ,  p.  33. 

January  2d. 
No  one  who  knows  the  content  of 
Christianity,  or  feels  the  universal  need 
of  a  Eeligion,  can  stand  idly  by  while 
the  intellect  of  his  age  is  slowly  di- 
vorcing itself  from  it. 

Natural  Law^  Preface,  p.  23. 


10  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

January  ^d, 

A  Science  without  mystery  is  un- 
known; a  Eeligion  without  mystery  is 
absurd.  However  far  the  scientific 
method  may  penetrate  the  Spiritual 
World,  there  will  always  remain  a  re- 
gion to  be  explored  by  a  scientific  faith. 
Natural  Law^  Introduction,  p.  28. 

January  4th. 
Among  the  mysteries  which  compass 
the  world  beyond,  none  is  greater  than 
how  there  can  be  in  store  for  man  a 
work  more  wonderful,  a  life  more  God- 
like than  this. 

Tlie  Programme  of  Ghristianity^  p.  62. 

January  ^th. 
The  Spiritual  Life  is  the  gift  of  the 
Living  Spirit.     The  spiritual  man  is  no 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.         11 

mere  development  of  the  Natural  man. 
He  is  a  New  Creation  born  from  Above. 
Natural  Law,  Bio-genesis,  p.  65. 

January  6th. 
Love  is  success,  Love   is   happiness,     C 
Love  is  life.     God  is  Love.     Therefore 

love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

January  yth. 

Give  me  the  Charity  which  delights 
not  in  exposing  the  weakness  of  others, 
but  "  covereth  all  things." 

TJie  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

January  8th. 
There  is  a  sense  of  solidity  about  a 
Law  of  Nature  which  belongs  to  nothing 


12  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

else  in  the  world.  Here,  at  last,  amid 
all  that  is  shifting,  is  one  thing  sure; 
one  thing  outside  ourselves,  unbiassed, 
unprejudiced,  uninfluenced  by  like  or 
dislike,  by  doubt  or  fear.  .  .  .  This 
more  than  anything  else  makes  one  eager 
to  see  the  Reign  of  Law  traced  in  the 
Spiritual  Sphere. 

Natural  Law,  Preface,  p.  28. 

January  gth. 

With  Nature  as  the  symbol  of  all  of 
harmony  and  beauty  that  is  known  to 
man,  must  we  still  talk  of  the  supernat- 
ural, not  as  a  convenient  word,  but  as  a 
different  order  of  world,  .  .  .  where 
the   Keign   of   Mystery   supersedes   the 

Eeign  of  Law? 

Natural  Law^  Introduction,  p.  6. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.         13 

January  loth. 
The  Eeign  of  Law  has  gradually  crept 
into  every  department  of  Nature,  trans- 
forming knowledge  everywhere  into 
Science.  The  process  goes  on,  and 
Nature  slowly  appears  to  us  as  one 
great  unity,  until  the  borders  of  the 
Spiritual  World  are  reached. 

Natural  Law,  Introduction,  p.  13. 

January  nth. 
No  single  fact  in    Science  has  ever 
discredited  a  fact  in  Eeligion. 

Natural  Law,  Introduction,  p.  30. 

^  January  i2th. 
I  shall  never  rise  to  the  point  of  view 
which  wishes  to  "  raise  "  faith  to  knowl- 
edge.    To  me,  the  way  of   truth  is  to 


14  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

come  through    the    knowledge    of     my 

ignorance  to  the  submissiveness  of  faith, 

and  then,  making  that  my  starting-place, 

to  raise  my  knowledge  into  faith. 

Natural  Law^  Introduction,  p.  28.     Quota- 
tion from  Beck  :  Bih.  Psychol. 

January  i^th. 
If  the  purification  of  Religion  comes 
from  Science,  the  purification  of  Science, 
in  a  deeper  sense,  shall  come  from  Ee- 

ligion. 

Natural  Law,  Introduction,  p.  31. 

January  14th. 

With  the  demonstration  of  the  natu- 
ralness of  the  supernatural,  scepticism 
even  may  come  to  be  regarded  as  un- 
scientific. And  those  who  have  wrestled 
long  for  a  few  bare  truths  to  ennoble  life 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.         15 

and  rest  their  souls  in  thinking  of  the 
future  will  not  be  left  in  doubt. 

Natural  Law^  Introduction,  p.  32. 

January  i^th. 

The  religion  of  Jesus  has  probably  al- 
ways suffered  more  from  those  who  have 
misunderstood  than  from  those  who  have 
opposed  it. 

Natural  Law,  Bio -genesis,  p.  67. 

January  i6th. 
It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  the 
amazing  successions  of  revelations  in  the 
domain  of  Nature,  during  the  last  few 
centuries,  at  which  the  world  has  all 
but  grown  tired  wondering,  are  to  yield 
nothing  for  the  higher  life. 

Natural  Law,  Introduction,  p.  33. 


{ 


16  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

January  17th. 
Is  life   not    full   of   opportvmities  for 
learning  love?     Every  man  and  woman 
every  clay  has  a  thousand  of  them. 

Greatest  Tiling  in  the  World. 

January  i8th. 
What  is  Science  but  what  the  Natural 
World  has  said  to  natural  men  ?     What 
is    Eevelation   but   what   the    Spiritual 
World  has  said  to  Spiritual  men  ? 

JVatural  Law,  Bio-genesis,  p.  73. 

January  igth. 
Life  depends  upon  contact  with  Life. 
It  cannot  spring  up  out  of  itself.  It  can- 
not develop  out  of  anything  that  is  not 
Life.  There  is  no  Spontaneous  Genera- 
tion in  religion  any  more  than  in  Na- 
ture.    Christ  is  the  source  of  Life  in  the 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.         17 

Spiritual  Worid ;  and  he  that  hath  the 
Son  hath  Life,  and  he  that  hath  not  the 
Son,  whatever  else  he  may  have,  hath  not 

Life. 

Natural  Laic,  Bio-genesis,  p.  74. 

January  20th. 
It  is  a  wonderful  thing  that  here  and 
there  in  this  hard,  uncharitable  w^orld, 
there  should  still  be  left  a  few  rare  souls 
who  think  no  evil. 

Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

January  21st, 
The  physical  Laws  may  explain  the 
inorganic  world;  the  biological  Laws 
may  account  for  the  development  of  the 
organic.  But  of  the  point  where  they 
meet,  of  that  strange  borderland  between 
the  dead  and  the  living.  Science  is  silent. 
It  is  as  if  God  had  placed  everything  in 
3 


18  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

earth  and  heaven  in  the  hands  of  Nature, 
but  reserved  a  point  at  the  genesis  of 
Life  for  His  direct  appearing. 

Natural  Law ^  Bio-genesis,  p.  69. 

January  22d. 

Except  a  mineral  be  born  "from 
above" — from  the  Kingdom  just  above 
it — it  cannot  enter  the  Kingdom  just 
^  above  it.  And  except  a  man  be  born 
"  from  above,"  by  the  same  law,  he  can- 
not enter  the  Kingdom  just  above  him. 
Natural  T^aw^  Bio  genesis,  p.  72. 

January  2^d. 

J       If  we  try  to  influence  or  elevate  others, 

(    we  shall  soon  see  that  success  is  in  pro- 

/   portion  to  their  belief  of  our  belief  in 

/  them. 

'  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.         19 

January  24th. 

The  world  is  not  a  play-ground ;  it  is 

a  school-room.     Life  is  not  a  holiday, 

but  an  education.     And  the  one  eternal 

lesson  for  us  all  is  how  better  we  can 

love. 

Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

January  2^th. 

What  a  noble  gift  it  is,  the  power  of 
playing  upon  the  souls  and  mils  of  men, 
and  rousing  them  to  lofty  purposes  and 

holy  deeds. 

Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

January  26th. 
The  test  of  Religion,  the  final  test  of 
Religion,  is  not  Religiousness,  but  Love. 

Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


y 


20  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

January  2yth. 

There  are  not  two  laws  of  Bio-genesis, 
one  for  the  natural,  the  other  for  the 
Spiritual ;  one  law  is  for  both.  Where- 
ever  there  is  Life,  Life  of  any  kind,  this 
same  law  holds. 

Natural  Law^  Bio  genesis,  p.  75. 


January  28th. 

The  first  step  in  peopling  these  worlds 
with  the  appropriate  living  forms  is  vir- 
tually miracle.  Nor  in  one  ease  is  there 
less  of  mystery  in  the  act  than  in  the 
other.  The  second  birth  is  scarcely  less 
perplexing  to  the  theologian  than  the 
first  to  the  embryologist. 

Natural  Law,  Bio-genesis,  p.  76. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.        21 

January  2gth, 
There  may  be  cases — they  are  prob- 
ably in  the  majority — where  the  moment 
of  contact  with  the  Living  Spirit,  though 
sudden,  has  been  obscure.  But  the  real 
moment  and  the  conscious  moment  are 
two  different  things.  Science  pronounces 
nothing  as  to  the  conscious  moment.  If 
it  did,  it  would  probably  say  that  that 
was  seldom  the  real  moment.  .  .  . 
The  moment  of  birth  in  the  natural  world 
is  not  a  conscious  moment — we  do  not 
know  we  are  bom  till  long  afterward. 
Natural  Law^  Bio-genesis,  p.  93. 

January  ^oth. 
The  stmnbling-block  to  most  minds  is 
perhaps  less  the  mere  existence  of  the 
unseen  than  the  want  of  definition,  the 


22  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS. 

apparently  hopeless  vagueness,  and  not 
least,  the  delight  in  this  vagueness  as 
mere  vagueness  by  some  who  look  upon 
this  as  the  mark  of  quality  in  Spiritual 
things.  It  will  be  at  least  something  to 
tell  earnest  seekers  that  the  Spiritual 
World  is  not  a  castle  in  the  air,  of  an 
architecture  unknown  to  earth  or  heaven, 
but  a  fair  ordered  realm  furnished  with 
many  familiar  things  and  ruled  by  well- 
remembered  Laws. 

Natural  Law^  Introduction,  p.  26. 

January  31st. 
Character  grows  in  the  stream  of  the 
world's  life.     That  chiefly  is  where  men 
are  to  learn  love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  tlie  World. 


FEBRUARY. 


February  ist. 
If  a  man  does  not  exercise  his  arm  he 
develops  no  biceps  muscle ;  and  if  a 
man  does  not  exercise  his  soul,  he  ac- 
quires no  muscle  in  his  soul,  no  strength 
of  character,  no  vigour  of  moral  fibre,  nor 
beauty  of  Spiritual  growth. 

Tlie  Greatest  Thing  in  the  Woiid. 

February  2d. 
A  Religion  without  mystery  is  an  ab- 
surdity. Even  Science  has  its  mysteries, 
none  more  inscrutable  than  around  this 
Science  of  Life.  It  taught  us  sooner  or 
later  to  expect  mystery,  and  now  we 
enter  its  domain.  Let  it  be  carefully 
marked,  however,  that   the   cloud   does 


26  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

not  fall  and  cover  us  till  we  have  ascer- 
tained the  most  momentous  truth  of  Re- 
ligion— that  Christ  is  in  the  Christian. 

Natural  Law,  Bio-genesis,  p.  88. 

February  ^d. 
'  Religion  in  having  mystery  is  in  an- 
alogy with  all  around  it.  Where  there 
is  exceptional  mystery  in  the  Spiritual 
World  it  will  generally  be  found  that 
there  is  a  corresponding  mystery  in  the 
natural  world. 

Natural  Law,  Bio-genesis,  p.  91. 

February  4th. 

Even  to  earnest  minds  the  difficulty 
of  grasping  the  truth  at  all  has  always 
proved  extreme.  Philosophically,  one 
scarcely  sees  either  the  necessity  or  the 
possibility  of  being  born  again.     Why  a 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,        27 

virtuous  man  should  not   simply  grow 

better  and  better  until  in  his  own  right 

he  enter  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  what 

thousands  honestly  and  seriously  fail  to 

understand. 

Natural  Law^  Bio-genesis,  p.  80. 

February  ^th. 
Lavish  Love  upon  our  equals,  where 
it  is  very  difficult,  and  for  whom  perhaps 
we  each  do  least  of  all. 

Tlie  Greatest  Thing  in  iJie  World, 

February  6th. 
Spiritual  Life  is  not  something  outside 
ourselves.  The  idea  is  not  that  Christ 
is  in  heaven  and  that  we  can  stretch  out 
some  mysterious  faculty  and  deal  with 
Him  there.  This  is  the  vague  form  in 
which  many  conceive  the  truth,  but  it  is 


28  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

contrary  to  Christ's  teaching  and  to  the 
analogy  of  nature.  Life  is  definite  and 
resident;  and  Spiritual  Life  is  not  a 
visit  from  a  force,  but  a  resident  tenant 

in  the  soul. 

Natural  Law,  Bio  genesis,  p.  87. 

February  yth. 
If  we  neglect  almost  any  of  the  domes- 
tic animals,  they  will  rapidly  revert  to 
wild  and  worthless  forms.  Now,  the 
same  thing  exactly  would  happen  in  the 
case  of  you  or  me.  Why  should  man 
be  an  exception  to  any  of  the  laws  of 

nature  ? 

Natural  Law,  Degeneration,  p.  99. 

February  8th. 
The  law  of   Eeversion  to  Type  runs 
through  all  creation.     If  a  man  neglect 
himself  for  a  few  years  he  will  change 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND, 

into  a  worse  and  a  lower  man.    If  it  is  his 
body  that  he  neglects,  he  will  deteriorate  \)  ^ 
into  a  wild  and  bestial  savage.     .     .     ••  ^  V 
If  it  is  his  mind,  it  will  degenerate  into  ^j 
imbecility  and  madness.     .     .     .     If  hes^  ^ 
neglect  his  conscience,  it  will  run  off  into 
lawlessness  and  vice.     Or,  lastly,  if  it  is^ 
his  soul,  it  must  inevitably  atrophy,  drop .« 
off  in  ruin  and  decay. —  ^t4^^^^^^I^^X.^  ^ 
Natural  Law^  Degeneration,  p.  99. 

February  gth. 

Three  possibilities  of  life,  according  to 
Science,  are  open  to  all  living  organisms 
— Balance,  Evolution,  and  Degeneration. 
Natural  Law,  Degeneration,  p.  100. 

February  loth. 

The  life  of  Balance  is  difficult.     It  lies 
on  the  verge  of  continual  temptation,  its 


30  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

perpetual  adjustments  become  fatiguing, 
its  measured  virtue  is  monotonous  and 
uninspiring. 

Natural  Law^  Degeneration,  p.  101. 

February  nth. 

More  difficult  still,  apparently,  is  the 
life  of  ever  upward  growth.  Most  men 
attempt  it  for  a  time,  but  growth  is  slow ; 
and  despair  overtakes  them  while  the 
goal  is  far  away. 

Natural  Law^  Degeneration,  p.  101. 

February  12th. 

Degeneration  is  easy.  Why  is  it  easy  ? 
Why  but  that  already  in  each  man's  very 
nature  this  principle  is  supreme:  He 
feels  within  his  soul  a  silent  drifting  mo- 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,         31 

tion  impelling  him  downward  with  irre- 
sistible force. 

Natural  Law^  Degeneration,  p.  101. 

February  13th. 

This  is  Degeneration — that  principle 
by  which  the  organism,  failing  to  de- 
velop itself,  failing  even  to  keep  what  it 
has  got,  deteriorates,  and  becomes  more 
and  more  adapted  to  a  degraded  form  of 

life. 

Natural  LaiD,  Degeneration,  p.  101. 

February  14th. 

It  is  a  distinct  fact  by  itself,  which  we 
can  hold  and  examine  separately,  that  on 
purely  natural  principles  the  soul  that 
is  left  to  itself  unwatched,  imcultivated, 


32  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

unredeemed,  must  fall  away  into  death 
by  its  own  nature. 

Natural  Law^  Degeneration,  p.  104. 

February  i^th. 

If  a  man  find  the  power  of  sin  furi- 
ously at  work  within  him,  dragging  his 
whole  life  downward  to  destruction,  there 
is  only  one  way  to  escape  his  fate — to 
take  resolute  hold  of  the  upward  power, 
and  be  borne  by  it  to  the  opposite  goal. 
Natural  Law^  Degeneration,  p.  108. 

February  i6th. 

Neglect  does  more  for  the  soul  than 
make  it  miss  salvation.  It  despoils  it  of 
its  capacity  for  salvation. 

Natural  Law^  Degeneration,  p.  110. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND, 


33 


February  17th. 

Give  pleasure.  Lose  no  chance  in 
giving  pleasure.  For  that  is  the  cease- 
less and  anonymous  triumph  of  a  truly- 
loving  spirit. 


Greatest  Thing  in  the  Wmid, 


February  i8th. 

If  there  were  uneasiness  there  might 
be  hope.  If  there  were,  somewhere 
about  our  soul,  a  something  which  was 
not  gone  to  sleep  like  all  the  rest;  if 
there  were  a  contending  force  anywhere ; 
if  we  would  let  even  that  work  instead 
of  neglecting  it,  it  would  gain  strength 
from  hour  to  hour,  and  waken  up, 
one  at  a  time,  each  torpid  and  dishon- 
oured faculty,  till  our  whole  nature  be- 
came alive   with   strivings   against   self, 


34  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

and   every   avenue   was    open  wide    for 

God. 

Natural  Law^  Degeneration,  p.  112. 

February  igth. 
Where  is  the  capacity  for  heaven  to 
come  from  if  it  be  not  developed  on 
earth?  Where,  indeed,  is  even  the 
smallest  appreciation  of  God  and 
heaven  to  come  from  when  so  little  of 
spirituality  has  ever  been  known  or 
manifested  here? 

Natural  Law^  Degeneration,  p.  116. 

February  20th. 
Men  tell  us  sometimes  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  an  atheist.  There  must 
be.  There  are  some  men  to  whom  it  is 
true  that  there  is  no  God.  They  can- 
not see  God  because  they  have  no  eye. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.        35 

They  have  only  an  abortive  organ,  atro- 
phied by  neglect. 

Natural  Laic^  Degeneration,  p.  115. 

February  21st. 
Escape  means  nothing  more  than  the 
gradual  emergence  of  the  higher  being 
from  the  lower,  and  nothing  less.  It 
means  the  gradual  putting  off  of  all  that 
cannot  enter  the  higher  state,  or  heaven, 
and  simultaneously  the  putting  on  of 
Christ.  It  involves  the  slow  completing 
of  the  soul  and  the  development  of  the 
capacity  for  God. 

Natural  Law,  Degeneration,  p.  117. 

February  22d. 
If,  then,  escape  is  to  be  open  to  us,  it 
is  not  to  come  to  us  somehow,  vaguely. 
We  are  not  to  hope  for  anything  start- 


36  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

ling  or  mysterious.    It  is  a  definite  open- 
ing along  certain  lines  which  are  definite- 
ly marked  by  God,  which  begin  at  the 
Cross  of  Christ,  and  lead  direct  to  Him. 
Natural  Law^  Degeneration,  p.  117. 

February  2jd. 

Each  man,  in  the  silence  of  his  own 

soul,  must  work-out  this   salvation  for 

K  %.         himself   with  fear  and  trembling — with 

^  fear,  realizing  the  momentous  issues  of 

V         tis  task;  with  trembling,  lest,  before  the 

\    tardy  work  be  done,  the  voice  of  Death 

should  summon  him  to  stop. 
i  Natural  Law,  Degeneration,  p.  118. 

February  24th. 
So  cultivate  the  soul  that  all  its  pow- 
ers will  open  out  to  God,  and  in  behold- 
ing God  be  drawn  away  from  sin. 

Natural  Law,  Degeneration,  p.  118. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.        37 


February  2^th. 
There  is  a  Sense  of  Sight  in  the  re- 
ligious nature.  Neglect  this,  leave  it  un- 
developed, and  you  never  miss  it.  You 
simply  see  nothing.  But  develop  it  and 
you  see  God. 

Natural  Law,  Degeneration,  p.  118. 

February  26th. 
Become  pure  in  heart.  The  pure  in 
heart  shall  see  God.  Here,  then,  is  one 
opening  for  soul-culture — the  avenue 
through  purity  of  heart  to  the  spiritual 
seeing  of  God. 

Natural  Law,  Degeneration,  p.  119. 

February  2yth. 
There  is  a  Sense  of  Sound.     Neglect 
this,  leave  it  undeveloped,  and  you  never 


y 


38  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS, 

miss  it.  Develop  it,  and  you  hear  God. 
And  the  line  along  which  to  develop  it 
is  known  to  us.     Obey  Christ. 

Natural  Law,  Degeneration,  p.  119. 

February  28th 

He  who  loves  will  rejoice  in  the  Truth, 
rejoice  not  in  what  he  has  been  taught 
to  believe ;  not  in  this  Church's  doctrine 
or  in  that ;  not  in  this  issue,  or  in  that 
issue ;  but  "  in  the  Truth."  He  will  ac- 
cept only  what  is  real ;  he  will  strive  to 
get  at  facts ;  he  will  search  for  Truth 
with  a  humble  and  unbiassed  mind,  and 
cherish  whatever  he  finds  at  any  sacri- 
fice. 

TJie  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


MARCH. 


March  ist 
"  Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field  how 
they  grow."  Christ  made  the  lilies  and 
He  made  me — both  on  the  same  broad 
principle.  Both  together,  man  and  flow- 
er ...  ;  but  as  men  are  dull  at  study- 
ing themselves  He  points  to  this  com- 
panion-phenomenon to  teach  us  how  to 
live  a  free  and  natural  life,  a  life  which 
God  will  unfold  for  us,  without  our  anx- 
iety, as  He  mifolds  the  flower. 

Natural  Law,  Growth,  p.  133. 

March  2d, 
Our  efforts  after  Christian  growth  seem 
only  a  succession  of  failures,  and,  instead 
of  rising  into  the  beauty  of  holiness,  our 


42  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

life  is  a  daily  heart-break  and  humilia- 
tion. 

Natural  Law,  Growth,  p.  125. 

March  ^d. 

The  lilies  grow,  Christ  says,  of  them- 
selves; they  toil  not,  neither  do  they 
spin.  They  grow,  that  is,  automatically, 
spontaneously,  without  trying,  without 
fretting,  without  thinking. 

Natural  Law,  Growth,  p.  126. 

March  4th. 
Violent  efforts  to  grow  are  right  in 
earnestness,  but  wholly  wrong  in  prin- 
ciple. There  is  but  one  principle  of 
growth  both  for  the  natural  and  spirit- 
ual, for  animal  and  plant,  for  body  and 
soul.    For  all  growth  is  an  organic  thing. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.        43 

And  the  principle  of  growing  in  grace  is 

once  more  this,  "  Consider  the  lilies  how 

they  grow." 

Natural  Lam,  Growth,  p.  125. 

March  ^th. 

Earnest  souls  who  are  attempting  sanc- 
tification  by  struggle,  instead  of  sanctifi- 
cation  by  faith,  might  be  spared  much 
humiliation  by  learning  the  botany  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

Natural  Law^  Growth,  p.  127. 

March  6th. 

There  is  only 'one  thing  greater  than  , 
happiness  in  the  world,  and  that  is  holi-   \ 
ness ;  and  it  is  not  in  our  keeping ;  but 
what  God  has  put  in  our  power  is  the 
happiness  of  those  about  us,  and  that  is    / 


y 


;/  Ly^Ml'K'CV'L^ '  <         '  /  .    '  " 


44:  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

largely  to  be  secured  by  our  being  kind 

to  them. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

March  yth. 

We  have  all  felt  the  brazenness  of 
words  without  emotion,  the  hoUowness, 
the  unaccountable  unpersuasiveness  of 
eloquence  behind  which  lies  no  love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

March  8th. 

Patience;  kindness;  generosity;  hu- 
mility ;  courtesy ;  unselfishness ;  good- 
temper  ;  guilelessness  ;  sincerity — these 
make  up  the  supreme  gift,  the  stature  of 
the  perfect  man. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,        45 

March  gtk 

We  hear  much  of  love  to  God ;  Christ 
spoke  much  of  love  to  man.  We  make  a 
great  deal  of  peace  with  heaven  ;  Christ 
spoke  much  of  peace  on  earth. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

March  loth. 
K  God  is  spending  work  upon  a  Chris- 
tian, let  him  be  still  and  know  that  it  is 
God.     And  if  he  w^ants  work,  he  will  find 
it  there — in  the  being  still. 

Natural  Law,  Growth,  p.  137. 

March  nth. 

If  the  amount  of  energy  lost  in  trying 

to  grow  were  spent  in  fulfilling  rather 

the  conditions  of  growth,  we  should  have 

many  more  cubits  to  show  for  our  stature. 

Natural  Law,  Growth,  p.  137. 


46  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

March  12th. 

The  conditions  of  growth,  then,  and 
the  inward  principle  of  growth  being 
both  supplied  by  Nature,  the  thing  man 
has  to  do,  the  little  junction  left  for  him 
to  complete,  is  to  apply  the  one  to  the 
other.  He  manufactures  nothing ;  he 
earns  nothing;  he  need  be  anxious  for 
nothing ;  his  one  duty  is  to  be  in  these 
conditions,  to  abide  in  them,  to  allow 
grace  to  play  over  him,  to  be  still  and 
know  that  this  is  God. 

Natural  Law,  Growth,  p.  138. 

March  ijtk 

A  man  will  often  have  to  wrestle  with 

his   God  —  but   not   for   growth.      The 

Christian  life  is  a  composed  life.     The 

Gospel  is  Peace.     Yet  the  most  anxious 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.         47 

people   in   the   world   are   Cliristians  — 
Christians  who  misunderstand  the   nat- 
ure of  growth.     Life  is  a  perpetual  self-^ 
condemning  because  they  are  not  grow- 
ing. 

Natural  Law,  Growth,  p.  139. 

March  14th. 

All  the   work  of  the  world  is  merely 

a  taking  advantage  of   energies   already 

there. 

Natural  Law,  Growth,  p.  140. 

March  i^th, 

Eeligion  is  not  a  strange  or  added 
thing,  but  the  inspiration  of  the  secular 
life,  the  breathing  of  an  eternal  spirit 
through  this  temporal  world. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  Wo7id. 


48  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

March  i6th. 

The   stature   of   the   Lord  Jesus  was 

not  itself  reached  by  work,  and  he  who 

thinks  to   apj)roach  its  mystical  height 

by    anxious    effort    is     really    receding 

from  it. 

Natural  Law,  Growth,  p.  127. 

March  lyth. 

For  the  Life  must  develop  out  accord- 
ing to  its  type ;  and  being  a  germ  of  the 
Christ-life,  it  must  unfold  into  a  Christ. 
Natural  Law,  Growth,  p.  129. 

March  i8th. 

The  sneer  at  the  godly  man  for  his  im- 
perfections is  ill-judged.  A  blade  is  a 
small  thing.  At  first  it  grows  very  near 
the  earth.     It  is  often  soiled  and  crushed 


FROM  UENRT  BRUMMOND.         49 

and  downtrodden.  But  it  is  a  living 
thing,  .  .  .  and  "  it  doth  not  yet  ap- 
pear what  it  shall  be." 

Natural  Law,  Growth,  p.  129. 

March  igtK 
Christ's  protest  is  not   against  work, 
but  against  anxious  thought. 

Natural  Laic,  Growth,  p.  136. 

March  2oth. 

If  God  is  adding  to  our  spiritual  stat- 
ure, unfolding  the  new  nature  within  us, 
it  is  a  mistake  to  keep  twitching  at  the 
petals  with  our  coarse  fingers.  We  must 
seek  to  let  the  Creative  Hand  alone. 
"  It  is  God  which  giveth  the  increase." 

NatU7'al  Laic,  Growth,  p.  137. 


50  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

March  21st. 

{      Love  is  Patience,     This  is  the  normal 
\  attitude   of   Love ;   Love   passive,  Love 
j  waiting  to  begin  ;  not  in  a  hurry  ;  calm  ; 
/  ready  to  do  its  work  when  the  summons 
comes,  but  meantime  wearing  the  orna- 
ment of  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit. 

vj  The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


1 


March  22d. 

Have  you  ever  noticed  how  much  of 

Christ's   life   was    spent   in  doing  kind 

things  ? 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

March  2^d. 

I  wonder  why  it  is  we  are  not  all  kind- 
er than  we  are !  How  much  the  world 
needs  it.     How  easily  it  is  done.     How 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,         51 

instantaneously  it  acts.  How  infallibly 
it  is  remembered.  How  superabund- 
antly it  pays  itself  back — for  there  is  no 
debtor  in  the  world  so  honourable,  so 
superbly  honourable  as  Love. 

Tfw  Greatest  2  Mug  in  the  World. 

March  24th. 
To  love  abundantly  is  to  live  abund- 
antly, and  to  love  forever  is  to  live  for- 
ever.    Hence,  eternal  life  is  inextricably 
bound  up  with  love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

March  2^th, 
Man  is  a  mass  of  correspondences,  and 
because  of  these,  because  he  is  alive  to 
countless  objects  and  influences  to  which 


52  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTB 

lower  organisms  are  dead,  he  is  the  most 
^  1  living  of  all  creatures. 

^  J  '^  Natural  Law^  Death,  p.  155. 

^     ,  All  organisms  are  living  and  dead — 

V  3  living  to  all  within  the  circumference  of 
^  ^  their  correspondences,  dead  to  all  be- 
T  yond.     .     .     .    Until  man  appears  there 

^  is  no  organism  to  correspond  with  the 

,  whole  environment. 
/^^  7^tic>  h^JL^^^  (^  -^^  Natural  Law,  Death,  p.  155.  . 

"^  Is   man   in   correspondence  with   the 

whole  environment  or  is  he  not?  .  .  . 
He  is  not.  Of  men  generally  it  cannot 
be  said  that  they  are  in  living  contact 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.         53 

with  that  part  of  the  environment  which 
is  called  the  spiritual  world. 

Natural  Law^  Death,  p.  156. 

March  28th 
The  animal  world  and  the  plant  world 
are  the  same  world.     They  are  different 
parts  of  one  environment.     And  the  nat- 
ural and  spiritual  are  likewise  one. 

Natural  Law^  Death,  p.  157. 

March  2gth. 

"What  we  have  correspondence  with, 
that  we  call  natural ;  what  we  have  little 
or  no  correspondence  with,  that  we  call 

spiritual. 

Natural  Law^  Death,  p.  157. 


54  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS. 

March  ^oth. 
Those   who   are   in   comnmnion   with 
God  live,  those  who  are  not  are  dead. 

-     Natural  Law^  Death,  p.  158. 

March  ^ist. 

This  earthly  mind  may  be  of  noble 

calibre,  enriched  by  culture,  high-toned, 

virtuous,  and  pure.     But  if  it  know  not 

God  ?    Wliat  though  its  correspondences 

reach  to  the  stars  of  heaven  or  grasp  the 

magnitudes  of  Time  and  Space?     The 

stars  of  heaven  are  not  heaven.     Space 

is  not  God. 

Natural  Law,  Death,  p.  158. 


APRIL. 


April  I  St. 

We  do  not  picture  the  possessor  of  this 
carnal  mind  as  in  any  sense  a  monster. 
We  have  said  he  may  be  high-toned,  vir- 
tuous, and  pure.  The  plant  is  not  a 
monster  because  it  is  dead  to  the  voice 
of  the  bird ;  nor  is  he  a  monster  who  is 
dead  to  the  voice  of  God.  The  conten- 
tion at  present  simply  is  that  he  is  Dead. 

Natural  Law^  Death,  p.  159. 

April  2d. 

What  is  the  creed  of  the  Agnostic,  but 
the  confession  of  the  spiritual  numbness 

of  humanity? 

Natural  LaWy  Death,  p  IGO. 


58  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

April  3d, 

The  nescience  of  the  Agnostic  philoso- 
phy is  the  proof  from  experience  that  to 
be  carnally  minded  is  Death. 

Natural  Law^  p.  161. 

April  4th 

The  Christian  apologist  never  further 
misses  the  mark  than  when  he  refuses 
the  testimony  of  the  Agnostic  to  him- 
self. When  the  Agnostic  tells  me  he  is 
blind  and  deaf,  dumb,  torpid,  and  dead 
to  the  spiritual  world,  I  must  believe 
him.  Jesus  tells  me  that.  Paul  tells 
me  that.  Science  tells  me  that.  He 
knows  nothing  of  this  outermost  circle ; 
and  we  are  compelled  to  trust  his  sincer- 
ity as  readily  when  he  deplores  it  as  if, 
being  a  man  without  an  ear,  he  professed 


FBOM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.        59 

to  know  nothing  of  a  musical  world,  or 
being  without  taste,  of  a  world  of  art. 
Natural  Law^  Death,  p.  160. 

April  5//;. 
It  brings  no  solace  to  the  unspiritual 
man  to  be  told  he  is  mistaken.  To  say 
he  is  self-deceived  is  neither  to  compli- 
ment him  nor  Christianity.  He  builds 
in  all  sincerity  who  raises  his  altar  to 
the  Unknown  God.  He  does  not  know 
God.  With  all  his  marvellous  and  com- 
plex correspondences,  he  is  still  one  cor- 
respondence short. 

Natural  Law,  Death,  p.  161. 

April  6th. 
Only  one  thing  truly  need  the  Chris- 
tian envy,  the  large,  rich,  generous  soul 
which  "  envieth  not." 

The  Greatest  Tiling  in  the  World, 


60  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

April  jth. 

Whenever  you  attempt  a  good  work 
you  will  find  other  men  doing  the  same 
kind  of  work,  and  probably  doing  it  bet- 
ter.    Envy  them  not. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


April  8th. 

I  say  that  man  believes  in  a  God,  who 
feels  himself  in  the  presence  of  a  Power 
which  is  not  himself,  and  is  immeasura- 
bly above  himself,  a  Power  in  the  con- 
templation of  which  he  is  absorbed,  in 
the  knowledge  of  which  he  finds  safety 
and  happiness. 

Natural  Law^  Death,  p.  162. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.        61 

April  gth 

What  men  deny  is  not  a  God.  It  is 
the  correspondence.  The  very  confes- 
sion of  the  Unknowable  is  itself  the  dull 
recognition  of  an  Environment  beyond 
themselves,  and  for  which  they  feel  they 
lack  the  correspondence.  It  is  this  want 
that  makes  their  God  the  Unknown  God 
And  it  is  this  that  makes  them  dead. 

Natural  Laic,  Death,  p.  163< 

April  loth 

God  is  not  confined  to  the  outermost 
circle  of  environment.  He  lives  and 
moves  and  has  His  being  in  the  whole. 
Those  who  only  seek  Him  in  the  further 
zone  can  only  find  a  part.  The  Chris- 
tian who  knows  not  God  in  Nature,  who 
does  not,  that  is  to  say,  correspond  with 


62  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

the  whole  enYironment,  most  certainly  is 

partially  dead. 

Natural  Law^  Death,  p.  163. 

April  nth. 

After  you  have  been  kind,  after  Love 
has  stolen  forth  into  the  world  and  done 
its  beautiful  work,  go  back  into  the  shade 
again  and  say  nothing  about  it. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  tlie  World. 

April  1 2th 

The  absence  of  the  true  Light  means 
moral  Death.  The  darkness  of  the  nat- 
ural world  to  the  intellect  is  not  all. 
What  history  testifies  to  is,  first  the  par- 
tial, and  then  the  total  eclipse  of  virtue 
that  always  follows  the  abandonment  of 
belief  in  a  personal  God. 

Natural  Law,  Death,  p.  167. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.         63 

April  1 3th. 

f       The  only  greatness  is  unselfish  love.  \ 

'    .    .   .   There  is  a  great  difference  between  (      y 

trying  to  please  and  giving  pleasure.  ) 
The  Oreatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

April  14th 
The  conception  of  a  God  gives  an  alto- 
gether new  colour  to  worldliness  and  vice. 
Worldliness  it  changes  into  heathenism, 
vice  into  blasphemy.  The  carnal  mind, 
the  mind  which  is  turned  away  from 
God,  which  will  not  correspond  with  God 
— this  is  not  moral  only  but  spiritual 
Death.  And  Sin,  that  which  separates 
from  God,  w^hich  disobeys  God,  which 
can  not  in  that  state  correspond  with 
God — this  is  hell. 

Natural  Law,  Death,  p.  169. 


64  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

April  i^th. 

If  sin  is  estrangement  from  God,  this 
very  estrangement  is  Death.  It  is  a 
want  of  correspondence.  If  sin  is  sel- 
fishness, it  is  conducted  at  the  expense 
of  life.  Its  wages  are  Death — "  he  that 
loveth  his  life,"  said  Christ,  "  shall  lose 

it." 

Natural  Law,  Death,  p.  170. 

April  1 6th. 

Obviously  if  the  mind  turns  away  from 
one  part  of  the  environment  it  will  only 
do  so  under  some  temptation  to  corre- 
spond with  another.  This  temptation,  at 
bottom,  can  only  come  from  one  source 
— the  love  of  self.  The  irreligious  man's 
correspondences  are  concentrated  upon 
himself.      He   worships   himself.      Self- 


FROM  BENRY  DRUMMOND.         65 

gratification  rather  than  self-denial;  in- 
dependence rather  than  submission  — 
these  are  the  rules  of  life.  And  this  is 
at  once  the  poorest  and  the  commonest 

form  of  idolatry. 

Natural  Law,  p.  170. 

April  17th. 

You  will  find  .  .  .  that  the  peo- 
k  pie  who  influence  you  are  people  who 
j    believe  in  you. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

April  1 8th. 
The  development  of  any  organism  in 
any  direction  is  dependent  on  its  envi- 
ronment. A  living  cell  cut  off  from  air 
will  die.  A  seed-germ  apart  from  moist- 
ure and  an  appropriate  temperature  will 
5 


66  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

make  the  ground  its  grave  for  centuries. 
Human  nature,  likewise,  is  subject  to 
similar  conditions.  It  can  only  develop 
in  presence  of  its  environment.  No 
matter  what  its  possibilities  may  be,  no 
matter  what  seeds  of  thought  or  virtue, 
what  germs  of  genius  or  of  art,  lie  latent 
in  its  breast,  until  the  appropriate  envi- 
ronment present  itself  the  correspond- 
ence is  denied,  the  development  dis- 
couraged, the  most  splendid  possibilities 
of  life  remain  unrealized,  and  thought 
and  virtue,  genius  and  art,  are  dead. 

Natural  Laic,  p.  171. 

April  igth. 

The  true  environment  of  the  moral  life 
is  God.  Here  conscience  wakes.  Here 
kindles  love.    Duty  here  becomes  heroic ; 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,        67 

and  that  righteousness  begins  to  live 
which  alone  is  to  live  forever.  But  if  this 
Atmosphere  is  not,  the  dwarfed  soul 
must  perish  for  mere  want  of  its  native 
air.  And  its  Death  is  a  strictly  natural 
Death.  It  is  not  an  exceptional  judg- 
ment upon  Atheism.  In  the  same  cir- 
cumstances, in  the  same  averted  relation 
to  their  environment,  the  poet,  the  mu- 
sician, the  artist,  would  alike  perish  to 
poetry,  to  music,  and  to  art. 

Natural  Law^  p.  171. 

April  2otb. 

Every  environment  is  a  cause.  Its 
effect  upon  me  is  exactly  proportionate 
to  my  correspondence  with  it.  If  I  cor- 
respond with  part  of  it,  part  of  myself  is 
influenced.     If  I  correspond  with  more, 


68  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

more  of  myself  is  influenced ;  if  with  all, 
all  is  influenced.  If  I  correspond  with 
the  world,  I  become  worldly;  if  with 
God,  I  become  Divine. 

Natural  Law^  Death,  p.  171. 

April  2 1st, 

You  can  dwarf  a  soul  just  as  you  can 
dwarf  a  plant,  by  depriving  it  of  a  full 
environment.  Such  a  soul  for  a  time 
may  have  a  "  name  to  live."  Its  charac- 
ter may  betray  no  sign  of  atrophy.  But 
its  very  virtue  somehow  has  the  pallor 
of  a  flower  that  is  grown  in  darkness,  or 
as  the  herb  which  has  never  seen  the 
sun,    no    fragrance    breathes    from    its 

spirit. 

Natural  Law^  p.  173. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.        69 

April  22d. 
I  shall  pass  through  this  world  but 
once.  Any  good  thing,  therefore,  that 
I  can  do,  or  any  kindness  that  I  can 
show  to  any  human  being,  let  me  do  it 
now.  Let  me  not  defer  it  or  neglect  it, 
for  I  shall  not  pass  this  way  again. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

April  2)d, 

There  is  no  happiness  in  having  and 
getting,  but  only  in  giving  .  .  .  half 
the  world  is  on  the  wrong  scent  in  the 
pursuit  of  happiness. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


April  24th. 
No  form  of  vice,  not  worldliness,  not  / 
greed  of   gold,  not    drunkenness   itself,     ) 


70  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

does  more  to  un-Christianize  society  than 
evil  temper. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

April  2^tK 

How  many  prodigals  are  kept  out  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God  by  the  unlovely 
character  of  those  who  profess  to  be  in- 
side ! 

The  Greatest  Tiling  in  the  World. 

April  26th 

A  want  of  patience,  a  want  of  kind- 
ness, a  want  of  generosity,  a  want  of 
courtesy,  a  want  of  unselfishness,  are  all 
instantaneously  symbolized  in  one  flash 

of  Temper. 

TJie  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


FROM  HENRY  DRVMMOND.        71 

April  27th. 

Souls  are    made  sweet  not  by  taking  ^ 
the  acid  fluids  out,  but  by  putting  some- 
thing in — a  great  Love,  a  new  Spirit — 
the  Spirit  of  Christ. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  tfie  World. 

April  28th. 

Christ,  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  inter- 
penetrating ours,  sweetens,  purifies, 
transforms  all.  This  only  can  eradicate 
what  is  wrong,  work  a  chemical  change, 
renovate  and  regenerate,  and  rehabili- 
tate the  inner  man.  Will-power  does 
not  change  men.  Time  does  not  change 
men.     Christ  does. 

Tlie  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


72  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS, 

April  2gth. 

Guilelessness  is  the  grace  for  sus- 
picious people.  And  the  possession  of 
it  is  the  great  secret  of  personal  influ- 
ence. You  will  find,  if  you  think  for  a 
moment,  that  the  people  who  influence 
you  are  people  who  believe  in  you.  In 
.  an  atmosphere  of  suspicion  men  shrivel 
up ;  but  in  that  atmosphere  they  expand, 
and  find  encouragement   and   educative 

fellowship. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World, 

April  ^oth. 
Do  not  quarrel  .  .  .  with  your  lot  in 
life.  Do  not  complain  of  its  never-ceasing 
cares,  its  petty  environment,  the  vexations 
you  have  to  stand,  the  small  and  sordid 
souls  you  have  to  live  and  work  with. 
77ie  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 


MAY. 


May  1st. 

The  moment  the  new  life  is  begun' 
there  comes  a  genuine  anxiety  to  break 
with  the  old.  For  the  former  environ- 
ment has  now  become  embarrassing.  It 
refuses  its  dismissal  from  consciousness. 
It  competes  doggedly  with  the  new  En- 
vironment for  a  share  of  the  correspon- 
dences. And  in  a  hundred  ways  the 
former  traditions,  the  memories  and  pas- 
sions of  the  past,  the  fixed  associations 
and  habits  of  the  earlier  life,  now  com- 
plicate the  new  relation.  The  complex 
and  bewildered  soul,  in  fact,  finds  itself 
in  correspondence  with  two  environ- 
ments, each  with  urgent  but  yet  incom- 
patible claims.     It  is  a  dual  soul  living 


76  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

in  a  double  world,  a  world  whose  inhab- 
itants are  deadly  enemies,  and  engaged 
in  perpetual  civil  war. 

Natural  Law,  Mortification,  p.  179. 

May  2d, 

How  can  the  New  Life  deliver  itself 
from  the  still-persistent  past?  A  ready 
solution  of  the  difficulty  would  be  to  die. 
...  If  we  cannot  die  altogether,  .  .  . 
the  most  we  can  do  is  to  die  as  much  as 
we  can.  .  .  ,  To  die  to  any  environ- 
ment is  to  withdraw  correspondence  with 
it,  to  cut  ourselves  off,  so  far  as  possible, 
from  all  communication  with  it.  So  that 
the  solution  of  the  problem  will  simply 
be  this,  for  the  spiritual  life  to  reverse 
continuously  the  processes  of  the  natural 

life. 

Natural  Law,  Mortification,  p.  180. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.        77 

May  )d. 

The  spiritual  man  having  passed  from 
Death  unto  Life,  the  natural  man  must 
next  proceed  to  pass  from  Life  unto 
Death.  Having  opened  the  new  set  of 
correspondences,  he  must  deliberately 
close  up  the  old.  Regeneration  in  short 
must  be  accompanied  by  Degeneration. 
Natural  Law,  Mortification,  p.  181. 

May  4th 

The  peculiar  feature  of  Death  by  Sui- 
cide is  that  it  is  not  only  self-inflicted 
but  sudden.  And  there  are  many  sins 
which  must  either  be  dealt  with  sud- 
denly or  not  at  all. 

Natural  Law,  Mortification,  p.  183 


78  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

May  ^th. 

If  the  Christian  is  to  "live  unto  God," 
he  must  "  die  unto  sin."  If  he  does  not 
kill  sin,  sin .  will  inevitably  kill  him. 
Recognizing  this,  he  must  set  himself  to 
reduce  the  number  of  his  correspon- 
dences— retaining  and  developing  those 
which  lead  to  a  fuller  life,  uncondition- 
ally withdrawing  those  which  in  any  way 
tend  in  an  opposite  direction.  This 
stoppage  of  correspondences  is  a  vol- 
untary act,  a  crucifixion  of  the  flesh,  a 

suicide. 

Natural  Law,  Mortification,  p.  182. 

May  6th. 

Do  not  resent  temptation  ;  do  not  be 
perplexed  because  it  seems  to  thicken 
round  you  more  and  more,  and  ceases 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.        79 

neither  for  effort  nor  for  agony  nor 
prayer.  That  is  your  practice.  That  is 
the  practice  which  God  appoints  yon ; 
and  it  is  having  its  work  in  making  you 
patient,  and  humble,  and  generous,  and 
unselfish,  and  kind,  and  courteous. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

May  yth. 

It  is  a  peculiarity  of  the  sinful  state, 
that  as  a  general  rule  men  are  linked  to 
evil  mainly  by  a  single  correspondence. 
Few  men  break  the  whole  law.  Our  nat- 
ures, fortunately,  are  not  large  enough 
to  make  us  guilty  of  all,  and  the  re- 
straints of  circumstances  are  usually 
such  as  to  leave  a  loophole  in  the  life  of 
each  individual  for  only  a  single  habitual 
sin.     But  it  is  very  easy  to  see  how  this 


80  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

reduction  of  our  intercourse  with  evil  to 
a  single  correspondence  blinds  us  to  our 
true  position. 

Natural  Law^  Mortification,  p.  186. 

May  8th. 
One  little  weakness,  we  are  apt  to 
fancy,  all  men  must  be  allowed,  and  we 
even  claim  a  certain  indulgence  for  that 
apparent  necessity  of  nature  which  we 
call  our  besetting  sin.  Yet  to  break  with 
the  lower  environment  at  all,  to  many,  is 
to  break  at  this  single  point. 

Natural  Law,  p.  186. 

May  gth 

There  may  be  only  one  avenue  between 
the  new  life  and  the  old,  it  may  be  but  a 
small  and  subterranean  passage,  but  this 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.        81 

is  sufficient  to  keep  the  old  life  in.  So 
long  as  that  remains  the  victim  is  not 
''  dead  mito  sin,"  and  therefore  he  can- 
not "  live  unto  God." 

Natural  Law,  p.  187. 

May  loth. 

Do  not  grudge  the  hand  that  is  mould- 
ing the  still  too  shapeless  image  within 
you.  It  is  growing  more  beautiful, 
though  you  see  it  not,  and  every  touch 
of  temptation  may  add  to  its  perfection. 
Therefore  keep  in  the  midst  of  life.  Do 
not  isolate  yourself.  Be  among  men, 
and  among  things,  and  among  troubles, 
and  difficulties,  and  obstacles. 

T/ie  Greatest  'Thing  in  the  World, 


82  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

May  nth. 

Contemplate  the  love  of  Christ,  and 
you  will  love.  Stand  before  that  mirror, 
reflect  Christ's  character,  and  you  will  be 
changed  into  the  same  image  from  ten- 
derness to  tenderness.  There  is  no  other 
way.  You  cannot  love  to  order.  You 
can  only  look  at  the  lovely  object,  and 
fall  in  love  with  it,  and  grow  into  like- 
ness to  it. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

May  1 2th, 

In  the  natural  world  it  only  requires  a 
single  vital  correspondence  of  the  body 
to  be  out  of  order  to  ensure  Death.  It 
is  not  necessary  to  have  consumption, 
diabetes,  and  an  aneurism  to  bring  the 
body  to  the  grave,  if  it  have  heart  disease. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,        83 


He  who  is  fatally  diseased  in  one  organ 
necessarily  pays  the  penqjjby  with  his  life, 
though  all  the  others  be  in  perfect  health. 
And  such,  likewise,  are  the  mysterious 
unity  and  congelation  of  functions  in  the 
spiritual  organism  that  the  disease  of 
one  member  may  involve  the  ruin  of  the 

whole. 

Natural  Law,  Mortification,  p.  187. 


May  rjth. 

To  break  altogether,  and  at  every 
point,  with  the  old  environment,  is  a 
simple  impossibility.  So  long  as  the 
regenerate  man  is  kept  in  this  world  he 
must  find  the  old  environment  at  many 
points  a  severe  temptation. 

Natural  Law^  Mortification,  p.  190. 


84  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

May  14th. 

Power  over  Tery  many  of  the  common- 
est temptations  is  only  to  be  won  by  de- 
grees, and  however  anxious  one  might  be 
to  apply  the  summary  method  to  every 
case,  he  soon  finds  it  impossible  in  prac- 
tice. 

Natural  Law^  Mortification,  p.  190. 


May  i^th 

The  ill-tempered  person  .  .  .  can 
make  very  little  of  his  environment.  How- 
ever he  may  attempt  to  circumscribe  it  in 
certain  directions,  there  will  always  re- 
main a  wide  and  ever-changing  area  to 
stimulate  his  irascibility.  His  environ- 
ment, in  short,  is  an  inconstant  quantity, 
and  his  most  elaborate  calculations  and 


FROM  HENRY  DRVMMOND.        85 

precautions  must  often  and  suddenly  fail 

him. 

Natural  Law^  Mortification,  p.  191. 

May  1 6th. 

What  the  ill-tempered  person  has  to 
deal  with,  .  .  .  mainly,  is  the  corre- 
spondence, the  temper  itself.  And  that, 
he  well  knows,  involves  a  long  and  humil- 
iating discipline.  The  case  is  not  at  all  a 
surgical  but  a  medical  one,  and  the  knife 
is  here  of  no  more  use  than  in  a  fever. 
A  specific  irritant  has  poisoned  his  veins. 
And  the  acrid  humours  that  are  breaking 
out  all  over  the  surface  of  his  life  are 
only  to  be  subdued  by  a  gradual  sweet- 
ening of  the  inward  spirit. 

Natural  Law,  Mortification,  p.  191. 


86  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

May  lyth. 
The  man  whose  blood  is  pure  has  noth- 
ing to  fear.  So  he  whose  spirit  is  puri- 
fied and  sweetened  becomes  proof  against 
these  germs  of  sin.  "Anger,  wrath, 
malice  and  railing"  in  such  a  soil  can 
find  no  root. 

Natural  LaWy  Mortification,  p.  192. 

May  1 8th, 
The  Mortification  of  a  member  .  .  . 
is  based  on  the  Law  of  Degeneration. 
The  useless  member  here  is  not  cut  off, 
but  simply  relieved  as  much  as  possible 
of  all  exercise.  This  encourages  the 
gradual  decay  of  the  parts,  and  as  it  is 
more  and  more  neglected  it  ceases  to  be 
a  channel  for  life  at  all.  So  an  organism 
"  mortifies  "  its  members. 

Natural  Law^  Mortification,  p.  193. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.        87 

May  igth. 

Man's  spiritual  life  consists  in  the 
number  and  fulness  of  his  correspond- 
ences with  God.  In  order  to  develop 
these  he  may  be  constrained  to  insulate 
them,  to  enclose  them  from  the  other 
correspondences,  to  shut  himself  in  with 
them.  In  many  ways  the  limitation  of 
the  natural  life  is  the  necessary  condi- 
tion of  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  spirit- 
ual life. 

Natural  Law,  Mortification,  p.  195. 

May  2oth. 

No  man  is  called  to  a  life  of  seK-de- 
nial  for  its  own  sake.  It  is  in  order  to  a 
compensation  which,  though  sometimes 
difficult  to  see,  is  always  real  and  always 
proportionate.  No  truth,  perhaps,  in 
practical  religion  is  more  lost  sight  of. 


88  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

We  cherish  somehow  a  lingering  rebel- 
lion against  the  doctrine  of  self-denial — 
as  if  our  nature,  or  our  circumstances,  or 
our  conscience,  dealt  with  us  severely  in 
loading  us  with  the  daily  cross.  But  is 
it  not  plain  after  all  that  the  life  of  self- 
denial  is  the  more  abundant  life — more 
abundant  just  in  proportion  to  the  am- 
pler crucifixion  of  the  narrower  life  ?  Is 
it  not  a  clear  case  of  exchange — an  ex- 
change, however,  where  the  advantage  is 
entirely  on  our  side  ?  We  give  up  a  cor- 
respondence in  which  there  is  a  little 
life  to  enjoy  a  correspondence  in  which 
there  is  an  abundant  life.  What  though 
we  sacrifice  a  hundred  such  correspond- 
ences? We  make  but  the  more  room 
for  the  great  one  that  is  left. 

Natural  Law^  Mortification,  p.  195. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.        89 

May  2ist. 
Do  not  spoil  your  life  at  the  outset 
with  unworthy  and  impoverishing  cor- 
respondences ;  and  if  it  is  growing  truly 
rich  and  abundant,  be  very  jealous  of 
ever  diluting  its  high  eternal  quality 
with  anything  of  earth. 

Natural  Law,  Mortification,  p.  196. 

May  22d. 

To  concentrate  upon  a  few  great  cor- 
respondences, to  oppose  to  the  death  the 
perpetual  petty  larceny  of  our  life  by 
trifles — these  are  the  conditions  for  the 
highest  and  happiest  life.  .  .  .  The 
penalty  of  evading  self-denial  also  is  just 
that  we  get  the  lesser  instead  of  the 
larger  good.  The  punishment  of  sin  is 
inseparably  bound  up  with  itself. 

Natural  Law,  Mortification,  p.  196. 


90  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

May  2^d, 

Each  man  has  only  a  certain  amount 
of  life,  of  time,  of  attention — a  definite 
measurable  quantity.  If  he  gives  any  of 
it  to  this  life  solely  it  is  wasted.  There- 
fore Christ  says.  Hate  life,  limit  life,  lest 
you  steal  your  love  for  it  from  some- 
thing that  deserves  it  more. 

Natural  Law,  Mortification,  p.  197. 


May  24th 

To  refuse  to  deny  one's  self  is  just  to 
be  left  with  the  self  undenied.  When 
the  balance  of  life  is  struck,  the  self  will 
be  found  still  there.  The  discipline  of 
life  was  meant  to  destroy  this  self,  but 
that  discipline  having  been  evaded — and 
we  all  to  some  extent  have  opportunities, 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,        91 

and  too  often  exercise  them,  of  taking 
the  narrow  path  by  the  shortest  cuts — 
its  purpose  is  baulked.  But  the  soul  is 
the  loser.  In  seeking  to  gain  its  life  it 
has  really  lost  it. 

Natural  Law,  Mortification,  p.  196. 

May  2^fh. 

Suppose  we  deliberately  made  up  our 
minds  as  to  what  things  we  were  hence- 
forth to  allow  to  become  our  life  ?  Sup- 
pose we  selected  a  given  area  of  our  en- 
vironment and  determined  once  for  all 
that  our  correspondences  should  go  to 
that  alone,  fencing  in  this  area  all  round 
with  a  morally  impassable  wall?  True,  to 
others,  we  should  seem  to  live  a  poorer 
life  ;  they  would  see  that  our  environ- 
ment was  circumscribed,  and  call  us  nar- 


92  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

row  because  it  was  narrow.  But,  well- 
chosen,  this  limited  life  would  be  really 
the  fullest  life ;  it  would  be  rich  in  the 
highest  and  worthiest,  and  poor  in  the 
smallest  and  basest,  correspondences. 
Natural  Law^  Mortification,  p.  199. 

May  26th. 

The  well-defined  spiritual  life  is  not 
only  the  highest  life,  but  it  is  also  the 
most  easily  lived.  The  whole  cross  is 
more  easily  carried  than  the  half.  It  is 
the  man  who  tries  to  make  the  best  of 
both  worlds  who  makes  nothing  of  either. 
And  he  who  seeks  to  serve  two  masters 
misses  the  benediction  of  both. 

Natural  Law,  Mortification,  p.  199. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.        93 

May  27th. 
You  will  find,  as  you  look  back  upon 
your  life,  that  the  moments  that  stand 
out,  the  moments  when  you  have  really 
lived,  are  the  moments  when  you  have 
done  things  in  a  spirit  of  love.  As 
memory  scans  the  past,  above  and  be- 
yond all  the  transitory  pleasures  of  life, 
there  leap  forward  those  supreme  hours 
when  you  have  been  enabled  to  do  unno- 
ticed kindnesses  to  those  round  about 
you,  things  too  trifling  to  speak  about, 
but  which  you  feel  have  entered  into 
your  eternal  life. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  tlie  Worlds  p.  60. 

May  28th. 
No  man  can   become  a  saint  in   his 
sleep;   and  to  fulfil   the   condition    re- 


94  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

quired  demands  a  certain  amount  of 
prayer  and  meditation  and  time,  just  as 
improvement  in  any  direction,  bodily  or 
mental,  requires  preparation  and  care. 
Address  yourselves  to  that  one  thing ; 
at  any  cost  have  this  transcendent  char- 
acter exchanged  for  yours. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  Worlds  p.  60. 

May  2gth. 

He  who  has  taken  his  stand,  who  has 
drawn  a  boundary  line,  sharp  and  deep, 
about  his  religious  life,  who  has  marked 
off  all  beyond  as  for  ever  forbidden 
ground  to  him,  finds  the  yoke  easy  and 
the  burden  light.  For  this  forbidden 
environment  comes  to  be  as  if  it  were 
not.  His  faculties  falling  out  of  corre- 
spondence, slowly  lose  their  sensibilities. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.        95 


And  the  balm  of  Death  numbing  his 
lower  nature  releases  him  for  the  scarce 
disturbed  communion  of  a  higher  life. 
So  even  here  to  die  is  gain. 

Natural  Law^  Mortification,  p.  199. 

May  ^oth. 

Remain  side  by  side  with  Him  who 
loved  us,  and  gave  Himself  for  us,  and 
you  too  will  become  a  permanent  mag- 
net, a  permanently  attractive  force ;  and 
like  Him  you  will  draw  all  men  unto 
you,  like  Him  you  will  be  drawn  unto 
all  men.  That  is  the  inevitable  effect  of 
Love.  Any  man  who  fulfils  that  cause 
must  have  that  effect  produced  in  him. 

Tlie  Greatest  Tiling  in  the  Worlds  p.  45. 


96  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS, 

May  ^ist. 

Try  to  give  up  the  idea  that  religion 
comes  to  us  by  chance,  or  by  mystery, 
or  by  caprice.  It  comes  to  us  by  natural 
law,  or  by  supernatural  law,  for  all  law 
is  Divine. 

Th€  Greatest  Thing  in  the  Worlds  p.  46c 


JUNE. 


^  ^^-i-tjl^^^  June  /s/.^4^'5-/^    %i5:  "^    ' 
We  love  others,  we  love  everybody,  we  ^^\  "^  *, 


love  our  enemies,  because  He  first  loved         ^^  ^ 

us.     .     .     .     And  that  is  how  the  love 

of  God  melts  down  the  unlovely  heart  in 

man,  and  begets  in  him  the  new  creature, 

who  is   patient   and  humble  and  gentle 

and  unselfish. 

The  Oreateat  Thing  in  the  World,  p.  46. 

June  2d. 

The  belief  in  Science  as  an  aid  to  faith 
is  not  yet  ripe  enough  to  warrant  men  in 
searching  there  for  witnesses  to  the  high- 
est Christian  truths.  The  inspiration  of 
Nature,  it  is  thought,  extends  to  the 
humbler   doctrines  alone.     And  yet  the 


'^ 


100         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

reverent  inquirer  who  guides  his  steps  in 
the  right  direction  may  find  even  now,  in 
the  still  dim  twilight  of  the  scientific 
world,  much  that  will  illuminate  and  in- 
tensify his  sublimest  faith. 

Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  204. 

June  )d. 

Life  becomes  fuller  and  fuller,  richer 
and  richer,  more  and  more  sensitive  and 
responsive  to  an  ever- widening  Environ- 
ment as  we  rise  in  the  chain  of  being. 
Natural  Lawy  Eternal  Life,  p.  207. 

June  4th. 

Before  we  reach  an  Eternal  Life  we 
must  pass  beyond  that  point  at  which 
all  ordinary  correspondences   inevitably 


FROM  HENRY  IjMMMOND.      101 

cease.  We  must  find  an  organism  so 
high  and  complex,  that  at  some  point  in 
its  development  it  shall  have  added  a 
correspondence  which  organic  death  is 
powerless  to  arrest. 

Natural  Law,  Eternal  Life,  p.  313. 

June  ^th. 

Uninterrupted  correspondence  with  a 
perfect  Environment  is  Eternal  Life,  ac- 
cording to  Science.  "  This  is  Life  Eter- 
nal,' said  Christ,  ''that  they  may  know 
Thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus 
Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent."  Life 
Eternal  is  to  know  God.  To  know  God 
is  to  "  correspond  "  with  God.  To  cor- 
respond with  God  is  to  correspond  with 
a  Perfect  Environment.  And  the  organ- 
ism which  attains  to  this,  in  the  nature 


102         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

of  things,  must  live  forever.  Here  is 
"  eternal  existence  and  eternal  knowl- 
edge." 

Natural  Law,  Eternal  Life,  p.  215. 


June  6th 

To  find  a  new  Environment  again  and 
cultivate  relation  with  it  is  to  find  a  new 
Life.  To  live  is  to  correspond,  and  to 
correspond  is  to  live.  So  much  is  true  in 
Science.  But  it  is  also  true  in  Religion. 
And  it  is  of  great  importance  to  observe 
that  to  Eeligion  also  the  conception  of 
Life  is  a  correspondence.  No  truth  of 
Christianity  has  been  more  ignorantly  or 
wilfully  travestied  than  the  doctrine  of 
Immortality.  The  popular  idea,  in  spite 
of  a  hundred  protests,  is  that  Eternal 
Life  is  to  live  forever.     .     .     .     We  are 


FBOM  HENRY  DBUMMOND.      103 

told  that   Life   Eternal   is  not   to  live. 
This  is  Life  Eternal— ^o  know. 

Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  216. 


June  yth. 

From  time  to  time  the  taunt  is  thrown 
at  Keligion,  not  unseldom  from  lips 
which  Science  ought  to  have  taught 
more  caution,  that  the  Future  Life  of 
Christianity  is  simply  a  prolonged  ex- 
istence, an  eternal  monotony,  a  blind  and 
indefinite  continuance  of  being.  The 
Bible  never  could  commit  itself  to  any 
such  empty  platitude ;  nor  could  Chris- 
tianity ever  offer  to  the  world  a  hope  so 
colourless.  Not  that  Eternal  Life  has 
nothing  to  do  with  everlastingness. 
That  is  part  of  the  conception.     And  it 


104         BE  A  UTIFUL  THO  UGHTS 


is  this  aspect  of  the  question  that  first 
arrests  us  in  the  field  of  Science. 

Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  216. 


June  8th, 

Science  speaks  to  us  indeed  of  much 
more  than  numbers  of  years.  It  defines 
degrees  of  Life.  It  explains  a  widening 
Environment.  It  unfolds  the  relation 
between  a  widening  Environment  and 
increasing  complexity  in  organisms. 
And  if  it  has  no  absolute  contribution 
to  the  content  of  Beligion,  its  analogies 
are  not  limited  to  a  point.  It  yields  to 
Immortality,  and  this  is  the  most  that 
Science  can  do  in  any  case,  the  broad 
framework  for  a  doctrine. 

Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  217. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,      105 

June  gth. 

To  correspond  with  the  God  of  Sci- 
ence, the  Eternal  Unknowable,  would 
be  everlasting  existence ;  to  correspond 
with  **  the  true  God  and  Jesus  Christ," 
is  Eternal  Life.  The  quality  of  the 
Eternal  Life  alone  makes  the  heaven; 
mere  everlastingness  might  be  no  boon. 
Even  the  brief  span  of  the  temporal 
life  is  too  long  for  those  who  spend  its 
years  in  sorrow. 

Natural  Law,  Eternal  Life,  p.  220. 

June  loth. 
To  Christianity,  "he  that  hath  the 
Son  of  God  hath  Life,  and  he  that  hath 
not  the  Son  hath  not  Life."  This,  as 
we  take  it,  defines  the  correspondence 
which  is  to  bridge   the  grave.     This  is 


106         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

the  clue  to  the  nature  of  the  Life  that 
lies  at  the  back  of  the  spiritual  organ- 
ism. And  this  is  the  true  solution  of 
the  mystery  of  Eternal  Life. 

Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  227. 

June  nth. 
The  relation  between  the  spiritual 
man  and  his  Environment  is,  in  theo- 
logical language,  a  filial  relation.  With 
the  new  Spirit,  the  filial  correspondence, 
he  knows  the  Father — and  this  is  Life 

Eternal. 

Natural  Law,  Eternal  Life,  p.  229. 

June  1 2th. 

It  takes  the  Divine  to  know  the  Di- 
vine— but  in  no  more  mysterious  sense 
than  it  takes  the  human  to  understand 


FROM  HENBY  DRUMMOND.      107 

the  human.  The  analogy,  indeed,  for 
the  whole  field  here  has  been  finely  ex- 
pressed already  by  Paul :  "What  man," 
he  asks,  "  knoweth  the  things  of  a  man, 
save  the  spirit  of  man  which  is  in  him  ? 
Even  so  the  things  of  God  knoweth  no 
man,  but  the  Spirit  of  God.  Now  w^e 
have  received,  not  the  spirit  of  the 
world,  but  the  spirit  which  is  of  God ; 
that  we  might  know  the  things  that  are 
freely  given  to  us  of  God." — I.  Cor.  ii. 

11,  12. 

Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  229. 


June   i^th 

To  go  outside  what  we  call  Nature  is 
not  to  go  outside  Environment.  Nature, 
the  natural  Environment,  is  only  a  part 
of  Environment.     There  is  another  large 


108         BEAUTIFUL  THOUOHTS 

part,  which,  though  some  profess  to  have 
no  correspondence  with  it,  is  not  on 
that  account  unreal,  or  even  unnatural. 
The  mental  and  moral  world  is  imknown 
to  the  plant.     But  it  is  real. 

Natural  Law,  Eternal  Life,  p.  232. 

June  14th. 

Things  are  natural  or  supernatural 
simply  according  to  where  one  stands. 
Man  is  supernatural  to  the  mineral; 
God  is  supernatural  to  the  man.  Wlien 
a  mineral  is  seized  upon  by  the  living 
plant  and  elevated  to  the  organic  king- 
dom, no  trespass  against  Nature  is  com- 
mitted. It  merely  enters  a  larger  Envi- 
ronment, which  before  was  supernatural 
to  it,  but  which  now  is  entirely  natural. 
When  the    heart   of    a  man,   again,  is 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      109 

seized  upon  by  the  quickening  Spirit  of 
God,  no  further  violence  is  done  to  natu-  ' 
ral  law.     It  is  another  case  of  the  inor- 
ganic, so  to  speak,  passing  into  the  or- 
ganic. 

Natural  Law,  Etern&l  Life,  p.  232. 

June   i^th. 

Correspondence  in  any  case  is  the  gift 
of  Environment.  The  natural  Environ- 
ment gives  men  their  natural  faculties ; 
the  spiritual  affords  them  their  spiritu- 
al faculties.  It  is  natural  for  the  spir- 
itual Environment  to  supply  the  spiritu- 
al faculties ;  it  would  be  quite  unnatural 
for  the  natural  Environment  to  do  it. 
The  natural  law  of  Bio-genesis  forbids 
it ;  the  moral  fact  that  the  finite  cannot 
comprehend  the  Infinite  is  against  it; 


110         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

the  spiritual  principle  that  flesh  and 
blood  cannot  inherit  the  Kingdom  of 
God  renders  it  absurd. 

Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  233. 

June  J  6th. 

Organisms  are  not  added  to  by  accre- 
tion, as  in  the  case  of  minerals,  but  by 
growth.  And  the  spiritual  faculties  are 
organized  in  the  spiritual  protoplasm  of 
the  soul,  just  as  other  faculties  are  or- 
ganized in  the  protoplasm  of  the  body. 
Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  233. 

June  lyth. 

It  ought  to  be  placed  in  the  forefront 
of  all  Christian  teaching  that  Christ's 
mission  on  earth  was  to  give  men  Life. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,      111 

"  I  am  come,"  He  said,  "  that  ye  might 
have  Life,  and  that  ye  might  have  it 
more  abundantly."  And  that  He  meant 
literal  Life,  literal  spiritual  and  Eternal 
Life,  is  clear  from  the  whole  course  of 
His  teaching  and  acting. 

Natural  Lawy  Eternal  Life,  p.  235. 

June   1 8th. 

The  effort  to  detect  the  living  Spirit 
must  be  at  least  as  idle  as  the  attempt  to 
subject  protoplasm  to  microscopic  exam- 
ination in  the  hope  of  discovering  Life. 
We  are  warned,  also,  not  to  expect  too 
much.  "  Thou  canst  not  tell  whence  it 
Cometh  or  whither  it  goeth." 

Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  237. 


112  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

June   ipth. 

Many  men  would  be  religious  if  they 
knew  where  to  begin ;  many  would  be 
more  religious  if  they  were  sure  where  it 
would  end.  It  is  not  indifference  that 
keeps  some  men  from  God,  but  igno- 
rance. "  Good  Master,  what  must  I  do 
to  inherit  Eternal  Life?"  is  still  the 
deepest  question  of  the  age. 

Natural  Law,  Eternal  Life,  p.  237. 

June  2oth. 

The  voice  of  God  and  the  voice  of 
Nature.  I  cannot  be  wrong  if  I  listen 
to  them.  Sometimes,  when  uncertain  of 
a  voice  from  its  very  loudness,  we  catch 
the  missing  syllable  in  the  echo.  In 
God  and  Nature  we  have  Voice  and 
Echo.     When  I  hear  both,  I  am  assured. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      113 

My  sense  of  hearing  does  not  betray  me 
twice.  I  recognize  the  Voice  in  the 
Echo,  the  Echo  makes  me  certain  of  the 
Voice  ;  I  listen  and  I  know. 

Natural  LaWy  Eternal  Life,  p.  238. 

June  2 1  St. 
The  soul  is  a  living  organism.  And 
for  any  question  as  to  the  soul's  Life  we 
must  appeal  to  Life-science.  And  what 
does  the  Life-science  teach  ?  That  if  I 
am  to  inherit  Eternal  Life,  I  must  culti- 
vate a  correspondence  with  the  Eternal. 
Natural  Law,  Eternal  Life,  p.  239. 

June  22d. 

All  knowledge  lies  in  Environment. 
Wlien  I  want  to  know  about  minerals  I 
go  to  minerals.     When  I  want  to  know 


114  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

about  flowers  I  go  to  flowers.  And  they 
tell  me.  In  their  own  way  they  speak 
to  me,  each  in  its  own  way,  and  each  for 
itself — not  the  mineral  for  the  flower, 
which  is  impossible,  nor  the  flower  for 
the  mineral,  which  is  also  impossible. 
So  if  I  want  to  know  about  Man,  I  go  to 
his  part  of  the  Environment.  And  he 
tells  me  about  himseK,  not  as  the  plant 
or  the  mineral,  for  he  is  neither,  but  in 
his  own  way.  And  if  I  want  to  know 
about  God,  I  go  to  His  part  of  the  En- 
vironment. And  He  tells  me  about 
Himself,  not  as  a  Man,  for  He  is  not 
Man,  but  in  His  own  way. 

Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  239. 

June  2^d, 

Just  as  naturally  as  the  flower  and  the 
mineral  and  the  Man,  each  in  their  own 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      115 

way,  tell  me  about  themselves,  He  tells 
me  about  Himself.  He  very  strangely 
condescends  indeed  in  making  things 
plain  to  me,  actually  assuming  for  a  time 
the  Form  of  a  Man  that  I  at  my  poor 
level  may  better  see  Him.  This  is  my 
opportunity  to  know  Him.  This  incar- 
nation is  God  making  Himself  accessi- 
ble to  human  thought — God  opening  to 
Man  the  possibility  of  correspondence 
through  Jesus  Christ. 

Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  240. 

June  24th 

Having  opened  correspondence  with 
the  Eternal  Environment,  the  subse- 
quent stages  are  in  the  line  of  all  other 
normal  development.  We  have  but  to 
continue,  to  deepen,  to  extend,  and   to 


116  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

enrich  the  correspondence  that  has  been 
begun.  And  we  shall  soon  find  to  our 
surprise  that  this  is  accompanied  by  an- 
other and  parallel  process.  The  action 
is  not  all  upon  our  side.  The  Environ- 
ment also  will  be  found  to  correspond. 
Natural  Law,  Eternal  Life,  p.  241. 

June  2^th. 

Let  us  look  for  the  influence  of  Envi- 
ronment on  the  spiritual  nature  of  him 
who  has  opened  correspondence  with 
God.  Beaching  out  his  eager  and  quick- 
ened faculties  to  the  spiritual  world 
around  him,  shall  he  not  become  spirit- 
ual? In  vital  contact  with  Holiness, 
shall  he  not  become  holy?  Breathing 
now  an  atmosphere  of  ineffable  Purity, 
shall  he  miss  becoming  pure  ?     Walking 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      117 

with  God  from  day  to  day,  shall  he  fail 
to  be  taught  of  God  ? 

Natural  Law,  Eternal  Life,  p.  242. 

June  26th.  J^  ^'  ^' 
Growth  in  grace  is  sometimes  de- 
scribed as  a  strange,  mystical,  and  unin- 
telligible process.  It  is  mystical,  but 
neither  strange  nor  unintelligible.  It 
proceeds  according  to  Natural  Law,  and 
the  leading  factor  in  sanctification  is  In- 
fluence of  Environment. 

Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  242. 

June  2yth. 

Will  the  evolutionist  who  admits  the 
regeneration  of  the  frog  under  the  modi- 
fying influence  of  a  continued  correspon- 
dence with  a  new  environment,  care  to 


V 

4 


lis         BEAVTIFTX  THOVBHTS 

qQetstkin  tlie  possibOitT  of  tiie  soul  ;ms 
qfoiiiiig  ^^neli  ;i  £»eoUT  ais  flat  of  P»T<e9r, 
tiie  ittjumelloix^  1Mr^tillll]]^^laIletioli  of  flie 
iliai  in  eonlaiet  with  tiie 
otaba9eitii«:6od?  Is  tiie 
dttonge  from  the  eaurtUr  to  tlie  heATtenlT 
iMve  mTstorioas^  tbtn  the  change  firom 
tte  aqmidtie  la  flie  tantiestnil  mode  of 
life?  Is  Sraferfian  to  slop  milh  the 
oi^jamie?  H  it  be  objected  thsdt  it  hais 
;lo  pecfeet  flie  fmictioii  in  the 
flMiiapfrr  k,  thidt  it  wDl  taka 
HgBB  %o  |MM  tndL,  ftg  tiwirfinBi  in  the  Ouns- 


[Ub.p.ML 


We  kaie  Ubad  sptkeu  of  the  spent- 
bJ  uumnn—deaee  as  aibsadj] 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      119 

but  it  is  perfect  only  as  the  bud  is  per- 
fect. "  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  it 
shall  be,"  any  more  than  it  appeared  a 
million  years  ago  what  the  evolving 
batrachian  would  be. 

Natural  Latc^  Eternal  Life,  p.  244. 

Juiie  2gth. 

In  a  sense,  all  that  belongs  to  Time 
belongs  also  to  Eternity ;  but  these  lower 
con-espondences  are  in  their  nature  un- 
fitted for  an  Eternal  Life.  Even  if  thej' 
were  perfect  in  their  relation  to  their 
Environment,  they  would  still  not  be 
Eternal.  .  .  .  An  Eternal  Life  de- 
mands an  Eternal  En\dronment. 

Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  245. 


120  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS. 

June  ^oth. 
The  final  preparation  ...  for  the 
inheriting  of  Eternal  Life  must  consist 
in  the  abandonment  of  the  non-eternal 
elements.  These  must  be  unloosed  and 
dissociated  from  the  higher  elements. 
And  this  is  effected  by  a  closing  catas- 
trophe— Death. 

Natural  Law,  Eternal  Life,  p.  248. 


JULY. 


July  I  St. 
"  Perfect  correspondence,"  according 
to  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  would  be  "  per- 
fect Life."  To  abolish  Death,  therefore, 
all  that  would  be  necessary  would  be  to 
abolish  Imperfection.  But  it  is  the 
claim  of  Christianity  that  it  can  abolish 
Death.  And  it  is  significant  to  notice 
that  it  does  so  by  meeting  this  very  de- 
mand of  Science — it  abolishes  Imper- 
fection. 

Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  249. 

July  2d, 
The  part  of  the  organism  which   be- 
gins to  get  out  of  correspondence  with 
the   Organic   Enyironment   is   the   only 


124         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 


part  which  is  in  vital  correspondence 
with  it.  Though  a  fatal  disadvantage  to 
the  natural  man  to  be  thrown  out  of 
correspondence  with  this  Environment, 
it  is  of  inestimable  importance  to  the 
spiritual  man.  For  so  long  as  it  is 
maintained  the  way  is  barred  for  a  fur- 
ther Evolution.  And  hence  the  condi- 
tion necessary  for  the  further  Evolution 
is  that  the  spiritual  be  released  from  the 
natural.  That  is  to  say,  the  condition  of 
the  further  Evolution  is  Death. 

Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  249. 

July  3d. 

The  sifting  of  the  correspondences  is 

done  by  Nature.      This  is  its  last   and 

greatest  contribution  to  mankind.     Over 

the  mouth  of  the  grave  the  perfect  and 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      125 


the  imperfect  submit  to  their  final  sep- 
aration. Each  goes  to  its  own — earth  to 
earth,  ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust, 
Spirit  to  Spirit.  "The  dust  shall  re- 
turn to  the  earth  as  it  was ;  and  the 
Spirit  shall  return  unto  God  who  gave 

it." 

Natural  Law^  Eternal  Life,  p.  249, 


July  4th. 

Few  things  are  less  understood  than 
the  conditions  of  the  spiritual  life.  The 
distressing  incompetence  of  which  most 
of  us  are  conscious  in  trying  to  work  out 
our  spiritual  experience  is  due  perhaps 
less  to  the  diseased  will,  which  we  com- 
monly blame  for  it  than  to  imperfect 
knowledge  of  the  right  conditions.  It 
does  not  occur  to   us  how  natural   the 


126         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

spiritual  is.  We  still  strive  for  some 
strange  transcendent  thing ;  we  seek  to 
promote  life  by  methods  as  unnatural  as 
they  prove  unsuccessful ;  and  only  the 
utter  incomprehensibility  of  the  whole 
region  prevents  us  seeing  fully — what  we 
already  half-suspect — how  completely  we 
are  missing  the  road. 

Natural  Law^  Environment,  p.  356. 

July  ^th 

Living  in  the  spiritual  world  ...  is 
just  as  simple  as  living  in  the  natural 
world ;  and  it  is  the  same  kind  of  simplic- 
ity. It  is  the  same  kind  of  simplicity  for 
it  is  the  same  kind  of  world — there  are 
not  two  kinds  of  worlds.  The  conditions 
of  life  in  the  one  are  the  conditions  of  life 
in  the  other.     And  till  these  conditions 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      127 

are  sensibly  grasped,  as  the  conditions  of 
all  life,  it  is  impossible  that  the  personal 
effort  after  the  highest  life  should  be 
other  than  a  blind  struggle  carried  on  in 
fruitless  sorrow  and  humiliation. 

Natural  Law^  Environment,  p.  257. 

July  6th. 

Heredity  and  Environment  are  the 
master-influences  of  the  organic  world. 
These  have  made  all  of  us  what  we  are. 
These  forces  are  still  ceaselessly  playing 
upon  all  our  lives.  And  he  who  truly 
understands  these  influences;  he  who 
has  decided  how  much  to  allow  to  each  ; 
he  who  can  regulate  new  forces  as  they 
arise,  or  adjust  them  to  the  old,  so  direct- 
ing them  as  at  one  moment  to  make  them 
co-operate,  at  another  to  counteract  one 


128         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

another,    understands    the    rationale   of 
personal  development. 

natural  Law^  Environment,  p.  255. 

July  yth. 

To  seize  continuously  the  opportunity 
of  more  and  more  perfect  adjustment  to 
better  and  higher  conditions,  to  balance 
some  inward  evil  with  some  purer  in- 
fluence acting  from  without,  in  a  word 
to  make  our  Environment  at  the  same 
time  that  it  is  making  us — these  are  the 
secrets  of  a  well-ordered  and  successful 

life. 

Natural  Law,  Environment,  p.  256. 

July  8th. 

In  the  spiritual  world  .  .  .  the 
subtle  influences  which  form  and  trans- 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      129 

form  the  soul  are  Heredity  and  Environ- 
ment. And  here  especially,  where  all  is 
invisible,  where  much  that  we  feel  to  be 
real  is  yet  so  ill  defined,  it  becomes  of 
vital  practical  moment  to  clarify  the  at- 
mosphere as  far  as  possible  with  concep- 
tions borrowed  from  the  natural  life. 

Natural  Law,  Environment,  p.  256. 

July  gth. 
What  Heredity  has  to  do  for  us  is  de- 
termined outside  ourselves.  No  man 
can  select  his  own  parents.  But  every 
man  to  some  extent  can  choose  his  own 
Environment.  His  relation  to  it,  how- 
ever largely  determined  by  Heredity  in 
the  first  instance,  is  always  open  to  alter- 
ation. And  so  great  is  his  control  over 
Environment  and  so  radical  its  influence 
9 


130         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

over  him,  that  he  can  so  direct  it  as 
either  to  undo,  modify,  perpetuate,  or  in- 
tensify the  earlier  hereditary  influences 
within  certain  limits. 

Natural  Law,  Environment,  p.  257. 

July  loth. 
One  might  show  how  the  moral  man  is 
acted  upon  and  changed  continuously  by 
the  influences,  secret  and  open,  of  his 
surroundings,  by  the  tone  of  society, 
by  the  company  he  keeps,  by  his  occupa- 
tion, by  the  books  he  reads,  by  Nature, 
by  all,  in  short,  that  constitutes  the  ha- 
bitual atmosphere  of  his  thoughts  and  the 
little  world  of  his  daily  choice.  Or  one 
might  go  deeper  still  and  prove  how  the 
spiritual  life  also  is  modifled  from  out- 
side sources — its  health  or  disease,  its 
growth  or  decay,  all  its  changes  for  bet- 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,      181 

ter  or  for  worse  being  determined  by  the 
varying  and  successive  circumstances  in 
which  the  religious  habits  are  cultivated. 
Natural  Laic,  Environment,  p.  260. 

July  nth. 

In  the  spiritual  world  ...  he  will 
be  wise  who  courts  acquaintance  with  the 
most  ordinary  and  transparent  facts  of 
Nature;  and  in  laying  the  foundations 
for  a  religious  life  he  will  make  no  un- 
worthy beginning  who  carries  with  him 
an  impressive  sense  of  so  obvious  a 
truth  as  that  without  Environment  there 
can  be  no  life. 

Natural  Law,  Environment,  p.  264. 

July  1 2th. 

There  is  in  the  spiritual  organism  a 
principle  of  life ;  but  that  is  not  self -ex- 


132         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

istent.  It  requires  a  second  factor,  a 
something  in  which  to  live  and  move 
and  have  its  being,  an  Environment. 
Without  this  it  cannot  live  or  move  or 
have  any  being.  Without  Environment 
the  soul  is  as  the  carbon  without  the 
oxygen,  as  the  fish  without  the  water,  as 
the  animal  frame  without  the  extrinsic 
conditions  of  vitality. 

Natural  Law,  Environment,  p.  264. 

July  i^th. 

What  is  the  Spiritual  Environment? 
It  is  God.  Without  this,  therefore,  there 
is  no  life,  no  thought,  no  energy,  nothing 
— "  without  Me  ye  can  do  nothing." 

Natural  Law,  Environment,  p.  205. 


FROM  HENRY  DRVMMONB,      133 

July  i4tK 

The  cardinal  error  in  the  religious  life 
is  to  attempt  to  live  without  an  Environ- 
ment. Spiritual  experience  occupies  it- 
self, not  too  much,  but  too  exclusively, 
with  one  factor — the  soul.  We  delight 
in  dissecting  this  much-tortured  faculty, 
from  time  to  time,  in  search  of  a  certain 
something  which  we  call  our  faith — for- 
getting that  faith  is  but  an  attitude,  an 
empty  hand  for  grasping  an  environing 

Presence. 

Natural  Law,  Environment,  p.  265. 

July  i^th. 

When  we  feel  the  need  of  a  power  by 
which  to  overcome  the  world,  how  often 
do  we  not  seek  to  generate  it  within  our- 
selves by  some  forced  process,  some  fresh 


134         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

girding  of  the  will,  some  strained  activi- 
ty which  only  leaves  the  soul  in  further 
exhaustion  ? 

Natural  Law,  Environment,  p.  265. 

July  1 6th. 

To  examine  ourselves  is  good ;  but 
useless. unless  we  also  examine  Environ- 
ment. To  bewail  our  weakness  is  right, 
but  not  remedial.  The  cause  must  be 
investigated  as  well  as  the  result.  And 
yet,  because  we  never  see  the  other  half 
of  the  problem,  our  failures  even  fail  to 
instruct  us.  After  each  new  collapse  we 
begin  our  life  anew,  but  on  the  old  con- 
ditions; and  the  attempt  ends  as  usual 
in  the  repetition — in  the  circumstances 
the  inevitable  repetition — of  the  old  dis- 
aster. 

Natural  Law,  Environment,  p.  265. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.     135 


July  17th. 
After  seasons  of  much  discouragement, 
with  the  sore  sense  upon  us  of  our  abject 
feebleness,  we  do  confer  with  ourselves, 
insisting  for  the  thousandth  time,  "My 
soul,  wait  thou  only  upon  God."  But,  the 
lesson  is  soon  forgotten.  The  strength 
supplied  we  speedily  credit  to  our  own 
achievement ;  and  even  the  temporary 
success  is  mistaken  for  a  symptom  of  im- 
proved inward  vitality.  Once  more  we 
become  self -existent.  Once  more  we  go 
on  living  without  an  Environment.  And 
once  more,  after  days  of  wasting  without 
repairing,  of  spending  without  replenish- 
ing, we  begin  to  perish  with  hunger,  only 
returning  to  God  again,  as  a  last  resort, 
when  we  have  reached  starvation  point. 
Natural  Law,  Environment,  p.  366. 


136         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

My  1 8th. 
Why  this  unscientific  attempt  to  sus- 
tain life  for  weeks  at  a  time  without  an 
Environment?  It  is  because  we  have 
never  truly  seen  the  necessity  for  an  En- 
vironment. We  have  not  been  working 
with  a  principle.  We  are  told  to  "  wait 
only  upon  God,"  but  we  do  not  know 
why.  It  has  never  been  as  clear  to  us 
that  without  God  the  soul  will  die  as 
that  without  food  the  body  will  perish. 
In  short,  we  have  never  comprehended 
the  doctrine  of  the  Persistence  of  Force. 
Instead  of  being  content  to  transform 
energy  we  have  tried  to  create  it. 

Natural  Law^  Environment,  p.  266. 

July  igth. 
Whatever   energy  the    soul    expends 
must  first  be  "  taken  into  it  from  with- 


FROM  HENRY  DRITMMOND,      137 

out."  We  are  not  Creators,  but  creat- 
ures ;  God  is  our  refuge  and  strength. 
Communion  with  God,  therefore,  is  a 
scientific  necessity ;  and  nothing  will 
more  help  the  defeated  spirit  which  is 
struggling  in  the  wreck  of  its  religious 
life  than  a  common-sense  hold  of  this 
biological  principle  that  without  Envi- 
ronment he  can  do  nothing. 

Natural  Law,  Envirouraent,  p.  267. 

July  2oth. 
Who  has  not  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  he  is  but  a  part,  a  fraction  of  some 
larger  whole  ?  Who  does  not  miss,  at 
every  turn  of  his  life,  an  absent  God? 
That  man  is  but  a  part,  he  knows,  for 
there  is  room  in  him  for  more.  That 
God  is  the  other  part,  he  feels,  because  at 
times  He  satisfies  his  need.     Who  does 


138         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

not  tremble  often  under  that  sicklier 
symptom  of  his  incompleteness,  his 
want  of  spiritual  energy,  his  helpless- 
ness with  sin  ?  But  now  he  understands 
both  —  the  void  in  his  life,  the  power- 
lessness  of  his  will.  He  understands 
that,  like  all  other  energy.  Spiritual  pow- 
er is  contained  in  Environment.  He 
finds  here  at  last  the  true  root  of  all  hu- 
man frailty,  emptiness,  nothingness,  sin. 
This  is  why  "without  Me  ye  can  do 
nothing."  Powerlessness  is  the  normal 
state,  not  only  of  this,  but  of  every 
organism — of  every  organism  apart  from 

its  Environment. 

Natural  Law^  p.  268. 

July  2 1st 
Friendship   is  the   nearest  thing   we 
know  to  what  religion  is.     God  is  love. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      139 

And  to  make  religion  akin  to  Friendship 
is  simply  to  give  it  the  highest  expres- 
sion conceivable  by  man. 

The  Glianged  Life^  p.  49. 

July  22d. 

The  entire  dependence  of  the  soul 
upon  God  is  not  an  exceptional  mystery, 
nor  is  man's  helplessness  an  arbitrary 
and  unprecedented  phenomenon.  It  is 
the  law  of  all  Nature.  The  spiritual 
man  is  not  taxed  beyond  the  natural. 
He  is  not  purposely  handicapped  by  sin- 
gular limitations  or  unusual  incapaci- 
ties. God  has  not  designedly  made  the 
religious  life  as  hard  as  possible.  The 
arrangements  for  the  spiritual  life  are  the 
same  as  for  the  natural  life.  When,  in 
their   hours  of   unbelief,  men  challenge 


140         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

their  Creator  for  placing  the  obstacle  of 
human  frailty  in  the  way  of  their  highest 
development,  their  protest  is  against  the 
order  of  Nature. 

Natural  Law,  p.  269. 

July  2^d. 

The  organism  must  either  depend  on 
his  environment,  or  be  self-sufficient. 
But  who  will  not  rather  approve  the  ar- 
rangement by  which  man  in  his  creatural 
life  may  have  unbroken  access  to  an  In- 
finite Power?  What  soul  will  seek  to 
remain  self-luminous  when  it  knows 
that  "  The  Lord  God  is  a  Sun  ?  "  Who 
will  not  willingly  exchange  his  shal- 
low vessel  for    Christ's  well   of   living 

water. 

Natural  Law,  p  270. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      141 

July  24th. 

The  New  Testament  is  nowhere  more 
impressive  than  where  it  insists  on  the 
fact  of  man's  dependence.  In  its  view 
the  first  step  in  religion  is  for  man  to 
feel  his  helplessness.  Christ's  first  be- 
atitude is  to  the  poor  in  spirit.  The 
condition  of  entrance  into  the  spiritual 
kingdom  is  to  possess  the  child-spirit — 
that  state  of  mind  combining  at  once  the 
profoundest  helplessness  with  the  most 
artless  feeling  of  dependence. 

Natural  Law,  p.  271. 

July  2^th. 

Fruit-bearing  without  Christ  is  not  an 
improbability,  but  an  impossibility.  As 
well  expect  the  natural  fruit  to  flourish 
without  air  and  heat,  without  soil  and 


142         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

sunshine.  How  thoroughly  also  Paul 
grasped  this  truth  is  apparent  from  a 
hundred  pregnant  passages  in  which  he 
echoes  his  Master's  teaching.  To  him 
life  was  hid  with  Christ  in  God.  And 
that  he  embraced  this,  not  as  a  theory 
but  as  an  experimental  truth,  we  gather 
from  his  constant  confession,  "When  I 
am  weak,  then  am  I  strong." 

Natural  Law,  p.  271. 

July  26th. 

One  result  of  the  due  apprehension  of 
our  personal  helplessness  will  be  that  we 
shall  no  longer  waste  our  time  over  the 
impossible  task  of  manufacturing  energy 
for  ourselves.  Our  science  will  bring  to 
an  abrupt  end  the  long  series  of  severe 
experiments  in  which  we  have  indulged  in 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      143 

the  hope  of  finding  a  perpetual  motion. 
And  having  decided  upon  this  once  for 
all,  our  first  step  in  seeking  a  more  sat- 
isfactory state  of  things  must  be  to  find 
a  new  source  of  energy.  Following  Na- 
ture, only  one  course  is  open  to  us.  We 
must  refer  to  Environment.  The  natu- 
ral life  owes  all  to  Environment,  so  must 
the  spiritual.  Now  the  Environment  of 
the  spiritual  life  is  God.  As  Nature, 
therefore,  forms  the  complement  of  the 
natural  life,  God  is  the  complement  of 
the  spiritual. 

Natural  Law,  p.  272. 

July  2yth. 

Do  not  think  that  nothing  is  happen- 
ing because  you  do  not  see  yourself 
grow,  or  hear  the  whirr  of  the  machin- 


144         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

erj.  All  great  things  grow  noiselessly. 
You  can  see  a  mushroom  grow,  but  never 
a  child.  Mr.  Darwin  tells  us  that  Evolu- 
tion proceeds  by  "  numerous,  successive, 
and  slight  modifications." 

The  Changed  Life,  p.  54. 

July  28th. 

Wo  fail  to  praise  the  ceaseless  minis- 
try of  the  great  inanimate  world  around 
us  only  because  its  kindness  is  unobtru- 
sive. Nature  is  always  noiseless.  All 
her  greatest  gifts  are  given  in  secret. 
And  we  forget  how  truly  every  good  and 
perfect  gift  comes  from  without,  and 
from  above,  because  no  pause  in  her 
changeless  beneficence  teaches  us  the 
sad  lessons  of  deprivation. 

Natural  Law,  p.  274. 


FROM  HENRT  DBUMMOND,      145 

July  2gth, 

It  is  not  a  strange  thing  for  the  soul  to 
find  its  life  in  God.  This  is  its  native 
air.  God  as  the  Environment  of  the 
soul  has  been  from  the  remotest  age  the 
doctrine  of  all  the  deepest  thinkers  in 
religion.  How  profoundly  Hebrew  po- 
etry is  saturated  with  this  high  thought 
will  appear  when  we  try  to  conceive  of 

it  with  this  left  out. 

Natural  Law,  p.  274. 

July  ^oth. 

The  alternatives  of  the  intellectual  life 
are  Christianity  or  Agnosticism.  The 
Agnostic  is  right  when  he  trumpets  his 
incompleteness.  He  who  is  not  com- 
plete in  Him  must  be  for  ever  incom- 
plete. 

Natural  Law,  p.  278. 
10 


146  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS. 

July  ^ist. 
The  problems  of  the  heart  and  con- 
science are  infinitely  more  perplexing 
than  those  of  the  intellect.  Has  love  no 
future  ?  Has  right  no  triumph  ?  Is  the 
unfinished  self  to  remain  unfinished? 
The  alternatives  are  two,  Christianity 
or  Pessimism.  But  when  we  ascend 
the  further  height  of  the  religious  na- 
ture, the  crisis  comes.  There,  without 
Environment,  the  darkness  is  unutter- 
able. So  maddening  now  becomes  the 
mystery  that  men  are  compelled  to  con- 
struct an  Environment  for  themselves. 
No  Environment  here  is  unthinkable.  An 
altar  of  some  sort  men  must  have — God, 
or  Nature,  or  Law.  But  the  anguish  of 
Atheism  is  only  a  negative  proof  of  man's 

incompleteness. 

Natural  Law^  p.  279. 


AUGUST. 


August  I  St. 

A  photograph  prints  from  the  negative 
only  while  exposed  to  the  sun.  While 
the  artist  is  looking  to  see  how  it  is 
getting  on  he  simply  stops  the  getting 
on.  Whatever  of  wise  supervision  the 
soul  may  need,  it  is  certain  it  can  nevei 
be  over-exposed,  or  that,  being  exposed, 
anything  else  in  the  world  can  improve 
the  result  or  quicken  it. 

The  Changed  Life,  pp.  56,  57. 

August  2d. 

What  a  very  strange  thing,  is  it  not, 
for  man  to  pray  ?  It  is  the  symbol  at 
once  of  his  littleness  and  of  his  great- 


150         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 


ness.  Here  the  sense  of  imperfection, 
controlled  and  silenced  in  the  naiTower 
reaches  of  his  being,  becomes  audible. 
Now  he  must  utter  himself.  The  sense 
of  need  is  so  real,  and  the  sense  of  En- 
vironment, that  he  calls  out  to  it,  ad- 
dressing it  articulately,  and  imploring 
it  to  satisfy  his  need.  Surely  there  is 
nothing  more  touching  in  Nature  than 
this  ?  Man  could  never  so  expose  him-* 
self,  so  break  through  all  constraint,  ex- 
cept from  a  dire  necessity. 

Natural  Law^  p.  279. 

August  ^d. 

What  is  Truth  ?  The  natural  Environ- 
ment answers,  "Increase  of  Knowledge 
increaseth  Sorrow,"  and  "  much  study  is 
a  Weariness."     Christ  replies,  "Learn  of 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      151 

Me,  and  ye  shall  find  Kest."  Contrast 
the  world's  word  "  Weariness "  with 
Christ's  word  "  Rest."  No  other  teacher 
since  the  world  began  has  ever  associ- 
ated "learn"  with  "Eest."  Learn  of 
me,  says  the  philosopher,  and  you  shall 
find  Restlessness.  Learn  of  Me,  says 
Christ,  and  ye  shall  find  Rest. 

Natural  Law,  p.  280. 

August  4th. 

Men  will  have  to  give  up  the  experi- 
ment of  attempting  to  live  in  half  an  En- 
vironment. Half  an  Environment  will 
give  but  half  a  Life.  .  .  .  He  whose 
correspondences  are  with  this  world  alone 
has  only  a  thousandth  part,  a  fraction,  the 
mere  rim  and  shade  of  an  Environment, 
and  only  the  fraction  of  a  Life.     How 


152         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

long  will  it  take  Science  to  believe  its 
own  creed,  that  the  material  universe  we 
see  around  us  is  only  a  fragment  of  the 
universe  we  do  not  see  ? 

JVatural  Law^  p.  282. 

August  ^th. 
The  Life  of  the  senses,  high  and  low, 
may  perfect  itself  in  Nature.  Even  the 
Life  of  thought  may  find  a  large  comple- 
ment in  surrounding  things.  But  the 
higher  thought,  and  the  conscience,  and 
the  religious  Life,  can  only  perfect  them- 
selves in  God. 

Natural  Law^  p.  283. 

August  6th  o 
To  make  the  influence  of  Environment 
stop  with  the  natural  world  is  to  doom 
the  spiritual  nature  to  death.     For  the 


FROM  HENBT  DRUMMOND.      153 

soul,  like  the  body,  can  never  perfect 
itself  in  isolation.  The  law  for  both  is 
to  be  complete  in  the  appropriate  En- 
vironment. 

Natural  Law,  p.  283. 

August  yth. 

Take  into  your  new  sphere  of  labour, 
where  you  also  mean  to  lay  down  your 
life,  that  simple  charm.  Love,  and  your 
life-work  must  succeed.  You  can  take 
nothing  greater,  you  need  take  nothing 
less.  It  is  not  worth  while  going  if  you 
take  anything  less. 

The  Greatest  Tiling  in  the  World,  p.  17. 

August  8th. 
Politeness  has  been  defined  as  love  in 
trifles.     Courtesy  is  said  to  be  love  in 
little   things.     And    the   one   secret    of 


154:         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

politeness  is  to  love.  Love  cannot  be- 
have itself  unseemly.  You  can  put  the 
most  untutored  persons  into  the  highest 
society,  and  if  they  have  a  reservoir  of 
Love  in  their  heart,  they  will  not  behave 
themselves  unseemly.  They  simply  can- 
not do  it. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  tlie  World,  p.  26. 

August  gth. 

I  believe  that  Christ's  yoke  is  easy. 
Christ's  "  yoke  "  is  just  His  way  of  tak- 
ing life.  And  I  believe  it  is  an  easier 
way  than  any  other.  I  believe  it  is  a 
happier  way  than  any  other.  The  most 
obvious  lesson  in  Christ's  teaching  is 
that  there  is  no  happiness  in  having 
and  getting  anything,  but  only  in  giv- 
ing. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World,  p.  29. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      155 

August  loth. 

Half  the  world  is  on  the  wrong  scent 
in  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  They  think 
it  consists  in  having  and  getting,  and  in 
being  served  by  others.  It  consists  in 
giving,  and  in  serving  others.  He  that 
would  be  great  among  you,  said  Christ, 
let  him  serve.  He  that  would  be  happy, 
let  him  remember  that  there  is  but  one 
way — it  is  more  blessed,  it  is  more 
happy,  to  give  than  to  receive. 

TJie  Greatest  Thing  in  the  Warld,  p.  30. 

August  nth. 
"  Love  is  not  easily  provoked."  .  .  . 
We  are  inclined  to  look  upon  bad  temper 
as  a  very  harmless  weakness.  We  speak 
of  it  as  a  mere  infirmity  of  nature,  a  fam- 
ily failing,  a  matter  of  temperament,  not 


156         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

a  thing  to  take  into  very  serious  account 
in  estimating  a  man's  character.  And 
yet  here,  right  in  the  heart  of  this  analy- 
sis of  love,  it  finds  a  place ;  and  the  Bible 
again  and  again  returns  to  condemn  it  as 
one  of  the  most  destructive  elements  in 
human  nature. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  Worlds  p.  30. 

August  1 2th. 

The  peculiarity  of  ill-temper  is  that  it 
is  the  vice  of  the  virtuous.  It  is  often 
the  one  blot  on  an  otherwise  noble  char- 
acter. You  know  men  who  are  all  but 
.perfect,  and  women  who  would  be  en- 
tirely perfect,  but  for  an  easily  ruffled, 
quick-tempered,  or  "  touchy "  disposi- 
tion. This  compatibility  of  ill-temper 
with   high    moral    character   is    one   of 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      157 

the  strangest  and  saddest  problems  of 

ethics. 

2'lie  Greatest  Thing  in  the  Worlds  p.  31. 

August  I^th. 

What  makes  a  man  a  good  artist,  a 
good  sculptor,  a  good  musician  ?  Prac- 
tice. .  .  .  What  makes  a  man  a  good 
man?  Practice.  Nothing  else.  There 
is  nothing  capricious  about  religion.  We 
do  not  get  the  soul  in  different  ways,  un- 
der different  laws,  from  those  in  which 
we  get  the  body  and  the  mind. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  Worlds  p.  40. 

August  14th. 

Love  is  not  a  thing  of  enthusiastic 
emotion.  It  is  a  rich,  strong,  manly, 
vigorous  expression  of  the  whole  round 


158  BE  A  UTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

Christian  character — the  Christ-like  na- 
ture in  its  fullest  development.  And 
the  constituents  of  this  great  character 
are  only  to  be  built  up  by  ceaseless  prac- 
tice. 

The  Greatest  Thing  m  the  World ^  p.  41. 

August   I^th. 

We  know  but  little  now  about  the  con- 
ditions of  the  life  that  is  to  come.  But 
what  is  certain  is  that  Love  must  last. 
God,  the  Eternal  God,  is  Love.  Covet, 
therefore,  that  everlasting  gift. 

2'he  Greatest  Thing  in  the  Worlds  p.  54. 

August   1 6th. 

To  love  abundantly  is  to  live  abund- 
antly, and  to  love  forever  is  to  live  for- 
ever.    Hence,  eternal  life  is  inextricably 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      159 

bound  up  with  love.     .    .    .     Love  must 
be  eternal.     It  is  what  God  is. 

TJie  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World^  pp.  57,  58. 

August  lyth. 

When  a  man  becomes  a  Christian  the 
natural  process  is  this :  The  Living 
Christ  enters  into  his  soul.  Develop- 
ment begins.  The  quickening  Life 
seizes  upon  the  soul,  assimilates  sur- 
rounding elements,  and  begins  to  fashion 
it.  According  to  the  great  Law  of  Con- 
formity to  Type  this  fashioning  takes  a 
specific  form.  It  is  that  of  the  Artist 
who  fashions.  And  all  through  Life 
this  wonderful,  mystical,  glorious,  yet 
perfectly  definite,  process,  goes  on  "  un- 
til Christ  be  formed  "  in  it. 

Natural  Law,  p.  294. 


160         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

August  1 8th. 

The  Christian  Life  is  not  a  vague  ef- 
fort after  righteousness — an  ill-defined, 
pointless  struggle  for  an  ill-defined, 
pointless  end.  Religion  is  no  dishev- 
elled mass  of  aspiration,  prayer,  and 
faith.  There  is  no  more  mystery  in 
Religion  as  to  its  processes  than  in  Bi- 
ology. 

Natural  Law^  p.  294. 

August  igth. 

There  is  much  mystery  in  Biology. 
We  know  all  but  nothing  of  Life  yet, 
nothing  of  development.  There  is  the 
same  mystery  in  the  spiritual  Life. 
But  the  great  lines  are  the  same,  as  de- 
cided, as  luminous ;  and  the  laws  of 
natural   and   spiritual   are  the  same,  as 


FROM  HFNRT  DRUMMOND,      161 


unerring,  as  simple.  Will  everything 
else  in  the  natural  world  unfold  its  order, 
and  yield  to  Science  more  and  more  a 
vision  of  harmony,  and  Religion,  which 
should  complement  and  perfect  all,  re- 
main a  chaos  ? 

Natural  Law,  p.  294. 


August  20th. 

When  one  attempts  to  sanctify  him- 
self by  effort,  he  is  trying  to  make  his 
boat  go  by  pushing  against  the  mast. 
He  is  like  a  drowning  man  trying  to 
lift  himself  out  of  the  water  by  pulling 
at  the  hair  of  his  own  head.  Christ  held 
up  this  method  almost  to  ridicule  when 
He  said :  "  Which  of  you  by  taking 
thought  can  add  a  cubit  to  his  stature  ?  " 
The  one  redeeming  feature  of  the  self- 
11 


162         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

sufficient  method  is  this — that  those  who 
try  it  find  out  almost  at  once  that  it  will 

not  gain  the  goal. 

The  Changed  LifCy  p.  11. 

August  2 1  St. 

The  Image  of  Christ  that  is  forming 
within  us — that  is  life's  one  charge.  Let 
every  project  stand  aside  for  that.  "  Till 
Christ  be  formed,"  no  man's  work  is  fin- 
ished, no  religion  crowned,  130  life  has 

fulfilled  its  end. 

The  Changed  Life,  p.  62. 

August  22d. 

Our  companionship  with  Him,  like  all 
true  companionship,  is  a  spiritual  com- 
munion. All  friendship,  all  love,  human 
and  Divine,  is  purely  spiritual.     It  was 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      103 


after  He  was  risen  that  He  influenced 
even  the  disciples  most. 

The  Changed  Life,  p.  38. 

August  2^d. 

Make  Christ  your  most  constant  com- 
panion. Be  more  under  His  influence 
than  under  any  other  influence.  Ten 
minutes  spent  in  His  spciety  every  day, 
ay,  two  minutes  if  it  be  face  to  face*, 
and  heart  to  heart,  will  make  the  whole 
day  different.  Every  character  has  an 
inward  spring,  let  Christ  be  it.  Every 
action  has  a  key-note,  let  Christ  set  it. 
The  Changed  Life^  p.  40. 

August  24th. 

Under  the  right  conditions  it  is  as  nat- 
ural for  character  to  become  beautiful  as 


164         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

for  a  flower ;  and  if  on  God's  earth  there 
is  not  some  machinery  for  effecting  it, 
the  supreme  gift  to  the  world  has  been 
forgotten.  This  is  simply  what  man 
was  made  for.  With  Browning  :  ^*  I  say 
that  Man  was  made  to  grow,  not  stop." 

The  Changed  Life,  p.  10. 


^: 


«^^,  '       August  2^th. 

f  How  can  modern  men  to  -  day  make 
Christ,  the  absent  Christ,  their  most  con- 
stant companion  still?  The  answer  is 
that  Friendship  is  a  spiritual  thing.  It 
is  independent  of  Matter,  or  Space,  or 
Time.  That  which  I  love  in  my  friend 
is  not  that  which  I  see.  What  influences 
me  in  my  friend  is  not  his  body  but  his 

spirit. 
A  »  /  f\  0    i  P^  Changed  Life,  p.  37. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.     165 


August  26th. 

Love  should  be  the  supreme  thing — 
because  it  is  going  to  last ;  because  in 
the  nature  of  things  it  is  an  Eternal  Life. 
It  is  a  thing  that  we  are  living  now,  not 
that  we  get  when  we  die ;  that  we  shall 
have  a  poor  chance  of  getting  when  we 
die  unless  we  are  living  now. 

TJie  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World,  p.  58. 

August  27th. 

When  will  it  be  seen  that  the  charac- 
teristic of  the  Christian  Religion  is  its 
Life,  that  a  true  theology  must  begin 
with  a  Biology?  Theology  is  the  Sci- 
ence of  God.     Why  will  men  treat  God 

as  inorganic  ? 

Natural  Law^  p.  297. 


166        BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

August  28th. 

We  should  be  forsaking  the  lines  of 

nature  were  we  to  imagine  for  a  moment 

that  the  new  creature  was  to  be  formed 

out  of  nothing.     Nothing  can  be  made 

out  of  nothing.     Matter  is   imcreatable 

and  indestructible  ;  Nature  and  man  can 

only  form  and  transform.     Hence  when 

a  new  animal  is  made,  no  new  clay  is 

made.     Life  merely  enters  into  already 

existing  matter,  assimilates  more  of  the 

same  sort  and  rebuilds  it.     The  spiritual 

Artist  works  in  the  same  way.     He  must 

have  a  peculiar  kind  of   protoplasm,  a 

basis  of  life,  and  that  must  be  already 

existing. 

Natural  Law^  p.  297. 


FROM  HENRY  BRUMMOND.     167 

August  2gth. 
However  active  the  intellectual  or 
moral  life  may  be,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  this  other  Life  it  is  dead.  That 
which  is  flesh  is  flesh.  It  wants,  that  is 
to  say,  the  kind  of  Life  which  constitutes 
the  difference  between  the  Christian  and 
the  not-a-Christian.  It  has  not  yet  been 
"born  of  the  Spirit." 

Natural  Law^  p.  299. 

August  ^oth. 

The  protoplasm  in  man  has  a  some- 
thing in  addition  to  its  instincts  or  its 
habits.  It  has  a  capacity  for  God.  In 
this  capacity  for  God  lies  its  receptivity  ; 
it  is  the  very  protoplasm  that  was  neces- 
sary. The  chamber  is  not  only  ready  to 
receive  the  new  Life,  but  the  Guest  is 


168         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

expected,  and,  till  He  comes,  is  missed. 
Till  then  the  soul  longs  and  yearns, 
wastes  and  pines,  waving  its  tentacles 
piteously  in  the  empty  air,  feeling  after 
God  if  so  be  that  it  may  find  Him. 
This  is.  not  peculiar  to  the  protoplasm  of 
the  Christian's  soul.  In  every  land  and 
in  every  age  there  have  been  altars  to  the 
Known  or  Unknown  God. 

Natural  Law,  p.  300. 

August  ^ISt. 

It  is  now  agreed  as  a  mere  question  of 
anthropology  that  the  universal  language 
of  the  human  soul  has  always  been  "  I 
perish  with  hunger."  This  is  what  fits 
it  for  Christ.  There  is  a  grandeur  in 
this  cry  from  the  depths  which  makes . 
its  very  unhappiness  siiblime. 

Natural  Law^  p.  300, 


SEPTEMBER 


September  isf. 
In  reflecting  the  character  of  Christ, 
it  is  no  real  obstacle  that  we  may  never 
have  been  in  visible  contact  with  Him- 
self. Many  men  know  Dante  better 
than  their  own  fathers.  He  influences 
them  more.  As  a  spiritual  presence  he 
is  more  near  to  them,  as  a  spiritual  force 
more  real.  Is  there  any  reason  why  a 
greater  than  .  .  .  Dante  should  not 
also  instruct,  inspire,  and  mould  the  char- 
acters of  men  ? 

The  Changed  Life,  pp.  38,  52. 

September  2d. 
Mark  this  distinction.     .     .     .     Imi- 
tation is  mechanical,  reflection  organic. 


172         BEAVTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

The  one  is  occasional,  the  other  habitual. 
In  the  one  case,  man  comes  to  God  and 
imitates  Him ;  in  the  other,  God  comes 
to  man  and  imprints  Himself  upon  him. 
It  is  quite  true  that  there  is  an  imitation 
of  Christ  which  amounts  to  reflection. 
But  Paul's  term  includes  all  that  the 
other  holds,  and  is  open  to  no  mistake. 
"  Whom  having  not  seen,  I  love." 

The  Changed  Life^  p.  39. 

September  )d. 

In  paraphrase :  We  all  reflecting  as  a 
mirror  the  character  of  Christ  are  trans- 
formed into  the  same  Image  from  char- 
acter to  character — from  a  poor  charac- 
ter to  a  better  one,  from  a  better  one 
to  one  a  little  better  still,  from  that  to 
one  still  more  complete,  until  by  slow 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,      173 

degrees  the  Perfect  Image  is  attained. 
Here  the  solution  of  the  problem  of 
sanctification  is  compressed  into  a  sen- 
tence :  Eeflect  the  character  of  Christ 
and  you  will  become  like  Christ. 

The  Changed  Life,  p.  24. 

September  4th. 

Not  more  certain  is  it  that  it  is  some- 
thing outside  the  thermometer  that  pro- 
duces a  change  in  the  thermometer,  than 
it  is  something  outside  the  soul  of  man 
that  produces  a  moral  change  upon  him. 
That  he  must  be  susceptible  to  that 
change,  that  he  must  be  a  party  to  it, 
goes  without  saying;  but  that  neither 
his  aptitude  nor  his  will  can  produce  it 

is  equally  certain. 

The  Changed  Ufe^  p.  20. 


174         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

September  ^th. 

Just  as  in  an  organism  we  have  these 
three  things — formative  matter,  formed 
matter,  and  the  forming  principle  or 
life ;  so  in  the  soul  we  have  the  old  na- 
ture, the  renewed  nature,  and  the  trans- 
forming Life. 

Natural  Law^  p.  302. 

September  6th. 

Is  it  hopeless  to  point  out  that  one  of 
the  most  recognizable  characteristics  of 
life  is  its  unrecognizableness,  and  that 
the  very  token  of  its  spiritual  nature  lies 
in  its  being  beyond  the  grossness  of  our 

eyes? 

Natural  Law^  p.  302. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      175 

Jf^a^       September  yth. 

According  to  the  doctrine  of  Bio-gene- 
sis, life  can  only  come  from  life.  It  was 
Christ's  additional  claim  that  His  func- 
tion in  the  world  was  to  give  men  Life. 
"  I  am  come  that  ye  might  have  Life, 
and  that  ye  might  have  it  more  abund- 
antly." This  could  not  refer  to  the 
natural  life,  for  men  had  that  already. 
He  that  hath  the  Son  hath  another  Life. 
"  Know  ye  not  your  own  selves  how  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  in  you." 

Natural  Law^  p.  303. 


September  8th. 

The  recognition  of  the  Ideal  is  the 
first  step  in  the  direction  of  Conformity. 
But  let  it  be  clearly  observed  that  it  is 


176         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

but  a  step.  There  is  no  vital  connection 
between  merely  seeing  the  Ideal  and 
being  conformed  to  it.  Thousands  ad- 
mire Christ  who  never  become  Chris- 
tians. 

Natural  Law^  p.  306. 

September  gth. 

For  centuries  men  have  striven  to  find 
out  ways  and  means  to  conform  them- 
selves to  the  Christ  Life.  Impressive 
motives  have  been  pictured,  the  proper 
circumstances  arranged,  the  direction  of 
effort  defined,  and  men  have  toiled, 
struggled,  and  agonized  to  conform 
themselves  to  .the  Image  of  the  Son. 
Can  the  protoplasm  conform  itself  to  its 
type  ?  Can  the  embryo  fashion  itself? 
Is  Conformity  to  Type  produced  by  the 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      177 

matter  or  by  the  life,  by  the  protoplasm 
or  by  the  Type?  Is  organization  the 
cause  of  life  or  the  effect  of  it  ?  It  is 
the  effect  of  it.  Conformity  to  Type, 
therefore,  is  secured  by  the  type.  Christ 
makes  the  Christian. 

Natural  Law,  p.  307. 


September  loth. 

O  preposterous  and  vain  man,  thou 
who  couldest  not  make  a  finger-nail  of 
thy  body,  thinkest  thou  to  fashion  this 
wonderful,  mysterious,  subtle  soul  of 
thine  after  the  ineffable  Image  ?  Wilt 
thou  ever  permit  thyself  to  he  conformed 
to  the  Image  of  the  Son?  Wilt  thou, 
who  canst  not  add  a  cubit  to  thy  stature, 
submit  to  be  raised  by  the  Type  -  Life 
13 


178  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

within   thee   to   the   perfect   stature   of 

Christ 

Natural  Law^  p.  308. 

September  iitb. 

Men  will  still  experiment  "  by  works 
of  righteousness  which  they  have  done  " 
to  earn  the  Ideal  life.  The  doctrine  of 
Human  Inability,  as  the  Church  calls  it, 
has  always  been  objectionable  to  men 
who  do  not  know  themselves. 

Natural  Law,  p.  309. 

September  I2th. 
Let  man  choose"  Life  ;  let  him  daily 
nourish  his  soul ;  let  him  forever  starve 
the  old  life ;  let  him  abide  continuously 
as  a  living  branch  in  the  Vine,  and  the 
True- Vine  Life  will  flow  into  his  soul. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      179 

assimilating,  renewing,  conforming  to 
Type,  till  Christ,  pledged  by  His  own 
law,  be  formed  in  him. 

Natural  Lawy  p.  312. 

September  13th. 

The  work  begun  by  Nature  is  finished 
by  the  Supernatural — as  we  are  wont  to 
call  the  higher  natural.  And  as  the  veil 
is  lifted  by  Christianity  it  strikes  men 
dumb  with  wonder.  For  the  goal  of 
Evolution  is  Jesus  Christ. 

NafMraZ  Law,  p.  314. 

September  14th. 

The  Christian  life  is  the  only  life  that 
will  ever  be  completed.  Apart  from 
Christ  the  life  of  man  is  a  broken  pillar, 


180  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

the  race  of  men  an  unfinished  pyramido 
One  by  one  in  sight  of  Eternity  all 
human  Ideals  fall  short,  one  by  one  be- 
fore the  open   grave   all   human   hopes 

dissolve. 

Natural  Law,  p.  314.  , 


September  i^th. 

I  do  not  think  we  ourselves  are  aware 
how  much  our  religious  life  is  made  up 
of  phrases ;  how  much  of  what  we  call 
Christian  experience  is  only  a  dialect  of 
the  Churches,  a  mere  religious  phrase- 
ology with  almost  nothing  behind  it  in 
what  we  really  feel  and  know. 

Pax  Vdbiscum,  p.  12. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      181 

September  i6th. 

The  ceaseless  chagrin  of  a  self-centred 
life  can  be  removed  at  once  by  learning 
Meekness  and  Lowliness  of  heart.  He 
who  learns  them  is  forever  proof  against 
it.  He  lives  henceforth  a  charmed  life. 
Pax  Vobiscum,  p.  29. 

September  lyth. 

Great  trials  come  at  lengthened  inter- 
vals, and  we  rise  to  breast  them  ;  but  it 
is  the  petty  friction  of  our  every-day  life 
with  one  another,  the  jar  of  business  or 
of  work,  the  discord  of  the  domestic 
circle,  the  collapse  of  our  ambition,  the 
crossing  of  our  will  or  the  taking  down 
of  our  conceit,  which  makes  inward  peace 

impossible. 

Pax  Vobiscum,  p.  28. 


182  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

September  i8th 

There  are  people  who  go  about  the 
world  looking  out  for  slights,  and  they 
are  necessarily  miserable,  for  they  find 
them  at  every  turn — especially  the  im- 
aginary ones.  One  has  the  same  pity 
for  such  men  as  for  the  very  poor.  They 
are  the  morally  illiterate.  They  have 
had  no  real  education,  for  they  have 
never  learned  how  to  live. 

Pax  Vohiscum,  p.  31. 

September  igth 

Christ  never  said  much  in  mere  words 

about  the  Christian   graces.      He   lived 

them,  He  was  them.       Yet  we  do  not 

merely  copy  Him.     We  learn  His  art  by 

living  with  Him. 

Pax  Vohiscum^  p.  32. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      183 

September  20th.    • 

Christ's  invitation  to  the  weary  and 
heavy-laden  is  a  call  to  begin  life  over 
again  upon  a  new  principle — upon  His 
own  principle.  "  Watch  My  way  of 
doing  things,"  He  says.  "  Follow  Me. 
Take  life  as  I  take  it.  Be  meek  and 
lowly,  and  you  will  find  Eest." 

Pax  Vobiscum,  p.  32. 

September  21st. 

If  a  man  could  make  himself  humble 
to  order,  it  might  simplify  matters,  but 
we  do  not  find  that  this  happens.  Hence 
we  must  all  go  through  the  mill.  Hence 
death,  death  to  the  lower  self,  is  the 
nearest  gate  and  the  quickest  road  to  life. 
Pax  Vobiscum^  p.  35. 


184  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 


September  22d. 

Whatever  rest  is  provided  by  Christi- 
anity for  the  children  of  God,  it  is  cer- 
tainly never  contemplated  that  it  should 
supersede  personal  effort.  And  any  rest 
which  ministers  to  indifference  is  im- 
moral  and  unreal — it  makes    parasites 

and  not  men. 

Natural  Law,  p.  335. 

September  2^d. 

Just  because  God  worketh  in  him,  as 
the  evidence  and  triumph  of  it,  the  tnie 
child  of  God  works  out  his  own  salvation 
— works  it  out  having  really  received  it — 
not  as  a  light  thing,  a  superfluous  labour, 
but  with  fear  and  trembling  as  a  reason- 
able and  indispensable  service. 

Natural  Laic,  p.  335. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      185 


September  24th. 

Christianity,  as  Christ  taught,  is  the 

truest   philosophy   of  life   ever  spoken. 

But  let  us  be  quite  sure  when  we  speak 

of  Christianity,  that   we  mean   Christ's 

Christianity. 

Pax  Vobiscum,  p.  47. 

September  2^th. 

So  far  from  ministering  to  growth, 
parasitism  ministers  to  decay.  So  far 
from  ministering  to  holiness,  that  is  to 
ivholeness,  parasitism  ministers  to  exactly 
the  opposite.  One  by  one  the  spiritual 
faculties  droop  and  die,  one  by  one  from 
lack  of  exercise  the  muscles  of  the  soul 
grow  weak  and  flaccid,  one  by  one  the 
moral  activities  cease.  So  from  him 
that  hath  not,  is  taken  away  that  which 


186  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

he  hath,  and  after  a  few  years  of  parasit- 
ism there  is  nothing  left  to  save. 

Natural  Law,  p.  336. 

September  26th. 

The  natural  life,  not  less  than  the 
eternal,  is  the  gift  of  God.  But  life  in 
either  case  is  the  beginning  of  growth 
and  not  the  end  of  grace.  To  pause 
where  we  should  begin,  to  retrograde 
where  we  should  advance,  to  seek  a  me- 
chanical security  that  we  may  cover  in- 
ertia and  find  a  wholesale  salvation  in 
which  there  is  no  personal  sanctification 

— this  is  Parasitism. 

Natural  Law,  p.  336. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,      187 

September  2yth. 

Could  we  investigate  the  spirit  as  a 
living  organism,  or  study  the  soul  of  the 
backslider  on  principles  of  comparative 
anatomy,  we  should  have  a  revelation  of 
the  organic  effects  of  sin,  even  of  the 
mere  sin  of  carelessness  as  to  growth  and 
work,  which  must  revolutionize  our  ideas 
of  practical  religion.  There  is  no  room 
for  the  doubt  even  that  what  goes  on  in 
the  body  does  not  with  equal  certainty 
take  place  in  the  spirit  under  the  corre- 
sponding conditions. 

Natural  Law,  p.  345. 

September  28th. 
It  is  the  beautiful  work  of  Christianity 
everywhere  to  adjust  the  burden  of  life 
to  those  who  bear  it,  .and  them  to  it.     It 


188  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 


has  a  perfectly  miraculous  gift  of  heal- 
ing. Without  doing  any  violence  to 
human  nature  it  sets  it  right  with  life, 
harmonizing  it  with  all  surrounding 
things,  and  restoring  those  who  are 
jaded  with  the  fatigue  and  dust  of  the 
world  to  a  new  grace  of  living. 

Pax  Vobiscum,  p.  46. 

September  2gth. 
The  penalty  of  backsliding  is  not 
something  unreal  and  vague,  some  un- 
known quantity  which  may  be  measured 
out  to  us  disproportionately,  or  which, 
perchance,  since  God  is  good,  we  may 
altogether  evade.  The  consequences  are 
already  marked  within  the  structure  of 
the  soul.  So  to  speak,  they  are  physio- 
logical.    The  thing  effected  by  our  in- 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      189 

difference  or  by  our  indulgence  is  not 
the  book  of  final  judgment,  but  the  pres- 
ent fabric  of  the  soul. 

Naiural  Law^  p.  346. 

September  30th. 

The  punishment  of  degeneration  is 
simply  degeneration — the  loss  of  func- 
tions, the  decay  of  organs,  the  atrophy  of 
the  spiritual  nature.  It  is  well  known 
that  the  recovery  of  the  backslider  is 
one  of  the  hardest  problems  in  spiritual 
work.  To  reinvigorate  an  old  organ 
seems  more  difficult  and  hopeless  than 
to  develop  a  new  one ;  and  the  back- 
slider's terrible  lot  is  to  have  to  retrace 
with  enfeebled  feet  each  step  of  the  way 
along  which  he  strayed ;  to  make  up  inch 
by  inch  the  lee-way  he  has  lost,  carrying 


190         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS, 

with  him  a  dead-weight  of  acquired  re- 
luctance, and  scarce  knowing  whether  to 
be  stimulated  or  discouraged  by  the  op- 
pressive memory  of  the  previous  fall. 
Natural  Law,  p.  346. 


OCTOBER. 


October  ist. 

He  who  abandons  the  personal  search 
for  truth,  under  whatever  pretext,  aban- 
dons truth.  The  very  word  truth,  by 
becoming  the  limited  possession  of  a 
guild,  ceases  to  have  any  meaning ;  and 
faith,  which  can  only  be  founded  on 
truth,  gives  way  to  credulity,  resting  on 

mere  opinion. 

Natural  Law^  p.  353. 


October  2d, 

It  is  more  necessary  for  us  to  be  active 

than  to  be  orthodox.     To  be  orthodox  is 

what  we  wish  to  be,  but  we  can  only 

truly  reach  it  by  being  honest,  by  being 

13 


;5- 


194:         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

original,  by  seeing  with  our  own  eyes, 
by  believing  with  our  own  heart. 

Natural  Law,  p.  364. 

October  )d. 
^  Better  a  little  faith  dearly  won,  better 
r\  launched  alone  on  the  infinite  bewilder- 
ment of  Truth,  than  perish  on  the  splen- 
did plenty  of  the  richest  creeds.  Such 
Doubt  is  no  self-willed  presumption. 
Nor,  truly  exercised,  will  it  prove  itself, 
as  much  doubt  does,  the  synonym  for 

sorrow. 

Natural  Law,  p.  365. 

October  4th.  /^^  2^ 
Christianity  removes  the  attraction  of 
the  earth  ;  and  this  is  one  way  in  which 
it  diminishes  men's  burden.     It  makes 
them  citizens  of  another  world. 

Pax  Vobmum,_  p.  47. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.     195 

October  ^th. 
Then  the  Christian  experiences  are 
our  own  making?  In  the  same  sense  in 
which  grapes  are  our  own  making,  and 
no  more.  All  fruits  gi^oiv — whether  they 
grow  in  the  soil  or  in  the  soul ;  whether 
they  are  the  fruits  of  the  wild  grape  or 
of  the  True  Vine.  No  man  can  make 
things  grow.  He  can  get  them  to  grow 
by  arranging  all  the  circumstances  and 
fulfilling  all  the  conditions.  But  the 
growing  is  done  by  God. 

Pax  Vobiscum,  p.  56. 

October  6th, 

Men  may  not  know  how  fruits  grow, 
but  they  do  know  that  they  cannot  grow 
in  five  minutes.  Some  lives  have  not 
even  a  stalk  on  which  fruits  could  hang, 


196         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

even  if  they  did  grow  in  five  minutes. 
Some  have  never  planted  one  sound  seed 
of  Joy  in  all  their  lives ;  and  others  who 
may  have  planted  a  germ  or  two  have 
lived  so  little  in  sunshine  that  they  never 
could  come  to  maturity. 

Pax  Vobiscuniy  p.  51. 

October  yth. 
There  is  no  mystery  about  Happiness 
whatever.  Put  in  the  right  ingredients 
and  it  must  come  out.  He  that  abideth 
in  Him  will  bring  forth  much  fruit ;  and 
bringing  forth  much  fruit  is  Happiness. 
The  infallible  receipt  for  Happiness, 
then,  is  to  do  good ;  and  the  infallible 
receipt  for  doing  good  is    to   abide  in 

Christ. 

Pax  VoMscum,  p.  56. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      197 


October  8th. 
Spend  the  time  you  have  spent  in 
sighing  for  fruits  in  fulfilling  the  condi- 
tions of  their  growth.  The  fruits  will 
come,  must  come.  .  .  .  About  every 
other  method  of  living  the  Christian  life 
there  is  an  uncertainty.  About  every 
other  method  of  acquiring  the  Christian 
experiences  there  is  a  "  perhaps."  But 
in  so  far  as  this  method  is  the  way  of 

nature,  it  cannot  fail. 

Pax  VoMscum,  p.  58. 

October  gth. 

The  distinctions  drawn  between  men 
are  commonly  based  on  the  outward  ap- 
pearance of  goodness  or  badness,  on  the 
ground  of  moral  beauty  or  moral  deform- 
ity— is  this  classification  scientific  ?     Or 


198         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 


is  there  a  deeper  distinction  between  the 

Christian  and  the   not  -  a  -  Christian  as 

fundamental  as  that  between  the  organic 

and  the  inorganic  ? 

Natural  LaWy  p.  374. 

October  loth. 
What  is  the  essential  difference  be- 
tween the  Christian  and  the  not-a-Chris- 
tian,  between  the  spiritual  beauty  and 
the  moral  beauty  ?  It  is  the  distinction 
between  the  Organic  and  the  Inorganic. 
Moral  beauty  is  the  product  of  the  nat- 
ural  man,  spiritual  beauty  of  the  spirit- 
ual man. 

Natural  Law^  p.  380. 

October  nth. 
The  first  Law    of    biology  is:  That 
which  is  Mineral  is  Mineral ;  that  which 


FROM  BENRY  DRVMMOND.     199 

is  Flesh  is  Flesh  ;  that  which  is  Spirit  is 
Spirit.  The  mineral  remains  in  the  in- 
organic world  until  it  is  seized  upon  by 
a  something  called  Life  outside  the  in- 
organic world ;  the  natural  man  remains 
the  natural  man,  imtil  a  Spiritual  Life 
from  without  the  natural  life  seizes  upon 
him,  regenerates  him,  changes  him  into 

a  spiritual  man. 

Natural  Law,  p.  381. 

October  12th. 

Suppose  now  it  be  granted  for  a  mo- 
ment that  the  character  of  the  not-a- 
Christian  is  as  beautiful  as  that  of  the 
Christian.  This  is  simply  to  say  that 
the  crystal  is  as  beautiful  as  the  organ- 
ism. One  is  quite  entitled  to  hold  this ; 
but  what  he  is  not  entitled  to  hold  is 
that  both  in  the  same  sense  are  living. 


200  BEAUTIFUL  THOXIOHTS 

"  He  that  hath  the  Son  hath  Life,  and  he 

that  hath  not  the  Son  of  God  hath  not 

Life. 

Natural  Law,^.  Z^^, 

October  1 3th, 
Man  is  a  moral  animal,  and  can,  and 
ought  to,  arrive  at  great  natural  beauty 
of  character.  But  this  is  simply  to  obey 
the  law  of  his  nature — the  law  of  his 
flesh;  and  no  progress  along  that  line 
can    project    him     into     the     spiritual 

sphere. 

Natural  Law^  p.  382. 

October  14th 
If  any  one  choose  to  claim  that  the 
mineral  beauty,  the  fleshly  beauty,  the 
natural  moral  beauty,  is  all  he  covets,  he 


FROM  HENBY  DRUMMOND.      201 

is  entitled  to  his  claim.  To  be  good 
and  true,  pure  and  benevolent  in  the 
moral  sphere,  are  high  and,  so  far,  legit- 
imate objects  in  life.  If  he  deliberate- 
ly stop  here,  he  is  at  liberty  to  do  so. 
But  what  he  is  not  entitled  to  do  is  to 
call  himself  a  Christian,  or  to  claim  to 
discharge   the  functions  peculiar  to  the 

Christian  life. 

Natural  Law^  p.  883. 


October  i^th. 

In  dealing  with  a  man  of  fine  moral 
character,  we  are  dealing  with  the  high- 
est achievement  of  the  organic  kingdom. 
But  in  dealing  with  a  spiritual  man  we 
are  dealing  with  the  loivestform  of  life 
in  the  spiritual  ivorld.  To  contrast  the 
two,  therefore,  and  marvel  that  the  one 


202         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

is  apparently  so  little    better  than   the 
other,  is  unscientific  and  unjust. 

Natural  Law^  p.  385. 


October  i6th. 

The  spiritual  man  is  a  mere  unformed 
embryo,  hidden  as  yet  in  his  earthly 
chrysalis-case,  while  the  natural  man  has 
the  breeding  and  evolution  of  ages  rep- 
resented in  his  character.  But  what 
are  the  possibilities  of  this  spiritual 
organism  ?  What  is  yet  to  emerge  from 
this  chrysalis-case  ?  The  natural  char- 
acter finds  its  limits  within  the  organic 
sphere.  But  who  is  to  define  the  limits 
of  the  spiritual  ?  Even  now  it  is  very 
beautiful.  Even  as  an  embryo  it  con- 
tains some  prophecy  of  its  future  glory. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,      203 

But  the  point  to  mark  is,  that  "  it  doth 
not  yet  appear  what  it  shall  be." 

Natural  Laic,  p.  386. 

October  17th. 

The  best  test  for  Life  is  just  living. 
And  living  consists,  as  we  have  formerly 
seen,  in  corresponding  with  Environ- 
ment. Those  therefore  who  find  within 
themselves,  and  regularly  exercise,  the 
faculties  for  corresponding  with  the  Di- 
vine Environment,  may  be  said  to  live 

the  Spiritual  Life. 

Natural  Law,  p.  390. 

October  i8th. 

That  the  Spiritual  Life,  even  in  the 
embryonic   organism,  ought  already   to 


204         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

betray  itself  to  others,  is  certainly  what 
oiie  would  expect.  Every  organism  has 
its  own  reaction  upon  Nature,  and  the 
reaction  of  the  spiritual  organism  upon 
the  community  must  be  looked  for.  In 
the  absence  of  any  such  reaction,  in  the 
absence  of  any  token  that  it  lived  for  a 
higher  purpose,  or  that  its  real  interests 
were  those  of  the  Kingdom  to  which  it 
professed  to  belong,  we  should  be  en- 
titled to  question  its  being  in  that  King- 
dom. 

Natural  Law^  p.  390. 


October  igth. 

Man's  place  in  Nature,  or  his  position 
among  the  Kingdoms,  is  to  be  decided 
by  the  characteristic  functions  habitual- 
ly discharged  by  him.     Now,  when  the 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,      205 

habits  of  certain  individuals  are  closely 
observed,  when  the  total  effect  of  their 
life  and  work,  with  regard  to  the  com- 
munity, is  gauged,  .  .  .  there  ought 
to  be  no  difficulty  in  deciding  whether 
they  are  living  for  the  Organic  or  for  the 
Spiritual;    in  plainer  language,  for  the 

world  or  for  God. 

Natural  Law^  p.  391. 

October  20th. 

No  matter  what  may  be  the  moral  up- 
rightness of  man's  life,  the  honourable- 
ness  of  his  career,  or  the  orthodoxy  of  his 
creed,  if  he  exercises  the  function  of  lov- 
ing the  world,  that  defines  his  world — he 
belongs  to  the  Organic  Kingdom.  He 
cannot  in  that  case  belong  to  the  higher 
Kingdom.  "  If  any  man  love  the  world, 
the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him." 


206         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

After  all,  it  is  by  the  general  bent  of  a 

man's  life,   by  his  heart-impulses    and 

secret   desires,   his  spontaneous  actions 

and  abiding  motives,  that  his  generation 

is  declared. 

Natural  Law,  p.  393. 

October  21st. 

The  imperious  claim  of  a  Kingdom 
upon  its  members  is  not  peculiar  to 
Christianity.  It  is  the  law  in  all  depart- 
ments of  Nature  that  every  organism 
must  live  for  its  Kingdom.  And  in  de- 
fining living  for  the  higher  Kingdom 
as  the  condition  of  living  in  it,  Christ 
enunciates  a  principle  which  all  Nature 
has  prepared  us  to  expect. 

Natural  LaWy  p.  395. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,      207 

October  22d. 

Christianity  marks  the  advent  of  what 
is  simply  a  new  Kingdom.  Its  distinc- 
tions from  the  Kingdom  below  it  are 
fundamental.  It  demands  from  its  mem- 
bers activities  and  responses  of  an  alto- 
gether novel  order.  It  is,  in  the  concep- 
tion of  its  Founder,  a  Kingdom  for 
which  all  its  adherents  must  henceforth 
exclusively  live  and  work,  and  which 
opens  its  gates  alone  upon  those  who, 
having  counted  the  cost,  are  prepared  to 
follow  it  if  need  be  to  the  death.  The 
surrender  Christ  demanded  was  absolute. 
Every  aspirant  for  membership  must 
seek/rs^  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Natural  Law,  p.  394. 


208  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

October  2^d, 

Until  even  religious  men  see  the 
uniqueness  of  Christ's  society,  until  they 
acknowledge  to  the  full  extent  its  claim 
to  be  nothing  less  than  a  new  Kingdom, 
they  will  continue  the  hopeless  attempt 
to  live  for  two  Kingdoms  at  once.  And 
hence  the  value  of  a  more  explicit  Classi- 
fication. For  probably  the  most  of  the 
difficulties  of  trying  to  live  the  Christian 
life  arise  from  attempting  to  half -live  it. 
Natural  Law,  p.  396. 

October  24th. 
Two  Kingdoms,  at  the  present  time, 
are  known  to  Science — the  Inorganic  and 
the  Organic.  The  spiritual  life  does  not 
belong  to  the  Inorganic  Kingdom,  be- 
cause it  lives.     It  does  not  belong  to  the 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      209 

Organic  Kingdom,  because  it  is  endowed 
with  a  kind  of  Life  infinitely  removed 
from  either  the  vegetable  or  animal. 
Where,  then,  shall  it  be  classed?  We 
are  left  without  an  alternative.  There 
being  no  Kingdom  known  to  Science 
which  can  contain  it,  we  must  construct 
one.  Or,  rather,  we  must  include  in  the 
programme  of  Science  a  Kingdom  al- 
ready constructed,  but  the  place  of  which 
in  Science  has  not  yet  been  recognized. 
That  Kingdom  is  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
Natural  Law,  p.  397. 

October  25/fc 

The  goal  of  the  organisms  of  the  Spirit- 
ual World  is  nothing  less  than  this — to 
be  "  holy  as  He  is  holy,  and  pure  as  He 
is  pure."     And  by  the  Law  of  Conformity 
14 


210         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

to  Type,  their  final  perfection  is  secured. 
The  inward   nature   must    develop   out 
according  to  its  Type,  until  the  consum- 
mation of  oneness  with  God  is  reached. 
Natural  Law,  p.  403. 

October  26th 

Christianity  defines  the  highest  con- 
ceivable future  for  mankind.  It  satisfies 
the  Law  of  Continuity.  It  guarantees 
the  necessary  conditions  for  carrying  on 
the  organism  successfully,  from  stage  to 
stage.  It  provides  against  the  tendency 
to  Degeneration.  And  finally,  instead 
of  limiting  the  yearning  hope  of  final 
perfection  to  the  organisms  of  a  future 
age — an  age  so  remote  that  the  hope  for 
thousands  of  years  must  still  be  hopeless 
— instead  of  inflicting  this  cruelty  on  in- 


FROM  HENRY  BRUMMOND.      211 

telligences  mature  enougli  to  know  per- 
fection and  earnest  enougli  to  wish  it, 
Christianity  puts  the  prize  within  im- 
mediate reach  of  man. 

Natural  Law,  p.  404. 

October  27th. 

No  worse  fate  can  befall  a  man  in  this 
world  than  to  live  and  grow  old  alone, 
unloving  and  unloved.  To  be  lost  is  to 
live  in  an  unregenerate  condition,  love- 
less and  unloved ;  and  to  be  saved  is  to 
love  ;  he  that  dwelleth  in  love  dwelleth 
already  in  God.     For  God  is  Love. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World,  p.  59. 

October  28th. 
*^Love   suffereth  long,  and   is   kind; 
love  envieth  not ;  love  vaunteth  not  it- 


212         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

self."  Get  these  ingredients  into  your 
life.  Then  everything  that  you  do  is 
eternal.  It  is  worth  doing.  It  is  worth 
giving  time  to. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  tlie  World,  p.  60. 

October  2gth. 

The  final  test  of  religion  at  that  great 
Day  is  not  religiousness,  but  Love ;  not 
what  I  have  done,  not  what  I  have  be- 
lieved, not  what  I  have  achieved,  but 
how  I  have  discharged  the  common 
charities  of  life. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World,  p.  62. 

October  30th 

The  words  which  all  of  us  shall  one 
Day  hear  sound  not  of  theology  but  of 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      213 

life,  not  of  churches  and  saints,  but  of 
the  hungry  and  the  poor,  not  of  creeds 
and  doctrines,  but  of  shelter  and  cloth- 
ing, not  of  Bibles  and  prayer-books,  but 
of  cups  of  cold  water  in  the  name  of 

Christ. 

The  Greatest  TJiing  in  the  World^  p.  68. 

October  ^Jst. 

The  world  moves.  And  each  day, 
each  hour,  demands  a  further  motion  and 
re-adjustment  for  the  soul.  A  telescope 
in  an  observatory  follows  a  star  by  clock- 
work, but  the  clockwork  of  the  soul  is 
called  the  Will.  Hence,  Avhile  the  soul 
in  passivity  reflects  the  Image  of  the 
Lord,  the  Will  in  intense  activity  holds 
the  mirror  in  position  lest  the  drifting 
motion  of  the  world  bear  it  beyond  the 


214         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS. 

line  of  vision.  To  "follow  Christ"  is 
largely  to  keep  the  soul  in  such  position 
as  will  allow  for  the  motion  of  the  earth. 
And  this  calculated  counteracting  of  the 
movements  of  a  world,  this  holding  of 
the  mirror  exactly  opposite  to  the  Mir- 
rored, this  steadying  of  the  faculties  un- 
erringly, through  cloud  and  earthquakes 
fire  and  sword,  is  the  stupendous  co- 
operating labour  of  the  Will. 

The  Changed  Life,  p.  60. 


NOVEMBER. 


November  ist. 

All  around  us  Christians  are  wearing 
themselves  out  in  trying  to  be  better. 
The  amount  of  spiritual  longing  in  the 
world  —  in  the  hearts  of  unnumbered 
thousands  of  men  and  women  in  whom 
we  should  never  suspect  it;  among  the 
wise  and  thoughtful;  among  the  young 
and  gay,  who  seldom  assuage  and  never 
betray  their  thirst — this  is  one  of  the 
most  wonderful  and  touching  facts  of 
life.  It  is  not  more  heat  that  is  need- 
ed, but  more  light ;  not  more  force,  but 
a  wiser  direction  to  be  given  to  very  real 
energies  already  there. 

Pax  Vobiscum,  p.  14. 


218         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

November  2d, 

Men  sigh  for  the  wings  of  a  dove,  that 

they  may  fly  away  and  be  at  Rest.     But 

flying    away  will   not   help   us.     "  The 

Kingdom  of   God  is  ivithin  you,""      We 

aspire  to  the  top  to  look  for  Rest ;  it  lies 

at  the  bottom.     Water  rests  only  when 

it  gets  to  the  lowest  place.     So  do  men. 

Hence,  be  lowly. 

Pax  Vobiscum^  p.  30. 


November  ^d. 

The  kingdom  of  God  is  righteous- 
ness, peace,  joy.  Righteousness,  of 
course,  is  just  doing  what  is  right.  Any 
boy  who  does  what  is  right  has  the 
kingdom  of  God  within  him.  Any  boy 
who,  instead  of  being  quarrelsome,  lives 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,      219 

at  peace  with  the  other  boys,  has  the 
kingdom  of  God  within  him.  Any  boy 
whose  lieart  is  filled  with  joy  because 
he  does  what  is  right,  has  the  king- 
dom of  God  within  him.  The  kingdom 
of  God  is  not  going  to  religious  meet- 
ings, and  hearing  strange  religious  expe- 
riences :  the  kingdom  of  God  is  doing 
what  is  right — living  at  peace  with  all 
men,  being  filled  with  joy  in  the  Holy 

Ghost.   • 

Fksty  p.  11. 

November  4th. 

The  man  who  has  no  opinion  of  him- 
self at  all  can  never  be  hurt  if  others  do 
not  acknowledge  him.  Hence,  be  meek. 
He  who  is  without  expectation  cannot 
fret  if  nothing  comes  to  him.     It  is  self- 


220         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

evident  tliat  these  things  are  so.     The 

lowly  man  and  the  meek  man  are  really 

above   all   other  men,   above  all    other 

things. 

Pax  VoUscum,  p.  30. 

November  ^th. 

Keep  religion  in  its  place,  and  it  will 
take  you  straight  through  life,  and 
straight  to  your  Father  in  heaven  when 
life  is  over.  But  if  you  do  not  put  it  in 
its  place,  you  may  just  as  well  have 
nothing  to  do  with  it.  Eeligion  out  of 
its  place  in  a  human  life  is  the  most 
miserable  thing  in  the  world.  There 
is  nothing  that  requires  so  much  to 
be  kept  in  its  place  as  religion,  and 
its  place  is  what  ?  second  ?  third  ? 
"First."    Boys,   caixy  that  home  with 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      221 

you  to-day— ^rs^  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Make  it  so  that  it  will  be  natural  to 

you  to  think  about  ^  that  the  very  first 

thing. 

First,  pp.  15,  16. 

November  6th. 

The  change  we    have  been   striving 

after  is  not  to  be  produced  by  any  more 

striving  after.     It  is  to  be  wrought  upon 

us  by  the  moulding  of  hands  beyond  our 

own.     As  the  branch  ascends,   and  the 

bud  bursts,  and  the  fruit  reddens  under 

the  co-operation  of  influences  from  the 

outside  air,  so  man  rises  to  the  higher 

stature  under  invisible  pressures  from 

without. 

The  Changed  Life,  p.  21. 


222         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

November  yth. 

Every  man's  character  remains  as  it  is, 
or  continues  in  the  direction  in  which  it 
is  going,  until  it  is  compelled  by  im- 
pressed forces  to  change  that  state. 
Our  failure  has  been  the  failure  to  put 
ourselves  in  the  way  of  the  impressed 
forces.  There  is  a  clay,  and  there  is  a 
Potter;  we  have  tried  to  get  the  clay  to 
mould  the  clay. 

The  Changed  Life^  p.  21. 


November  8th. 

Character  is  a  unity,  and  all  the  vir- 
tues must  advance  together  to  make  the 
perfect  man.  This  method  of  sanctifica- 
tion,  nevertheless,  is  in  the  true  direc- 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,      223 

tion.     It  is  only  in  the  details  of  execu- 
tion that  it  fails. 

The  Changed  Life^  p.  14. 


November  gth 

We  all  reflecting  as  a  mirror  the  char- 
acter of  Christ  are  transformed  into  the 
same  Image  from  character  to  character 
— from  a  poor  character  to  a  better  one, 
from  a  better  one  to  one  a  little  better 
still,  from  that  to  one  still  more  com- 
plete, until  by  slow  degrees  the  Perfect 
Image  is  attained.  Here  the  solution  of 
the  problem  of  sanctification  is  com- 
pressed into  a  sentence:  Reflect  the 
character  of  Christ,  and  you  will  become 

like  Christ. 

The  Changed  Life,  p.  24. 


224         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

November  loth. 

There  are  some  men  and  some  women 
in  whose  company  we  are  always  at  our 
best.  While  with  them  we  cannot  think 
mean  thoughts  or  speak  ungenerous 
words.  Their  mere  presence  is  eleva- 
tion, purification,  sanctity.  All  the  best 
stops  in  our  nature  are  drawn  out  by 
their  intercourse,  and  we  find  a  music  in 
our  souls  that  was  never  there  before. 

The  Changed  Life,  p.  33. . 

November  nth.  . 
Take  such  a  sentence  as  this :  African 
explorers  are  subject  to  fevers  which 
cause  restlessness  and  delirium.  Note 
the  expression,  "  cause  restlessness." 
Restlessness  has  a  cause.  Clearly,  then, 
any  one  who  wished  to  get  rid  of  rest- 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      225 

lessness  would  pioceed  at  once  to  deal 
with  the  cause. 

Pax  Vobiscum,  p.  20. 

November  12th. 
What  Christian  experience  wants  is 
thread,  a  vertebral  column,  method.  It 
is  impossible  to  believe  that  there  is  no 
remedy  for  its  unevenness  and  dishevel- 
ment,  or  that  the  remedy  is  a  secret. 
The  idea,  also,  that  some  few  men,  by 
happy  chance  or  happier  temperament, 
have  been  given  the  secret — as  if  there 
were  some  sort  of  knack  or  trick  of  it — 
is  wholly  incredible.  Religion  must 
ripen  fruit  for  every  temperament ;  and 
the  way  even  into  its  highest  heights 
must  be  by  a  gateway  through  which  the 
peoples  of  the  world  may  pass. 

Fax  Vobiscum,  p.  15. 


226         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

November  iph. 

Nothing  that  happens  in  the  world 
happens  by  chance.  God  is  a  God  of 
order.  Everything  is  arranged  upon 
definite  principles,  and  never  at  random. 
The  world,  even  the  religious  world,  is 
governed  by  law.  Character  is  governed 
by  law.  Happiness  is  governed  by  law. 
The  Christian  experiences  are  governed 
by  law. 

Pax  Vohiscum^  p.  17. 


November  14th. 

We  are  changed,  as  the  Old  Version 
has  it — we  do  not  change  ourselves.  No 
man  can  change  himself.  Throughout 
the  New  Testament  you  will  find  that 
wherever  these  moral  and  spiritual  trans- 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,      227 

formations  are  described  the  verbs  are  in 
the  passive.  Presently  it  will  be  point- 
ed out  that  there  is  a  rationale  in  this  ; 
but  meantime  do  not  toss  these  words 
aside  as  if  this  passivity  denied  all  hu- 
man effort  or  ignored  intelligible  law. 
What  is  implied  for  the  soul  here  is  no 
more  than  is  everywhere  claimed  for  the 

body. 

The  Changed  Life,  p.  19. 

November  i^th. 

Eain  and  snow  do  drop  from  the  air, 
but  not  without  a  long  previous  histo- 
ry. They  are  the  mature  effects  of  for 
mer  causes.  Equally  so  are  Eest,  and 
Peace,  and  Joy.  They,  too,  have  each 
a  previous  history.  Storms  and  winds 
and   calms    are    not    accidents,  but  are 


228  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

brought  about  by  antecedent  circum- 
stances. Rest  and  Peace  are  but  calms  in 
man's  inward  nature,  and  arise  through 
causes  as  definite  and  as  inevitable. 

Pax  Vobiscum,  p.  18. 

November  i6th. 

Few  men  know  how  to  live.  We  grow 
up  at  random,  carrying  into  mature  life 
the  merely  animal  methods  and  motives 
which  we  had  as  little  children.  And  it 
does  not  occur  to  us  that  all  this  must  be 
changed ;  that  much  of  it  must  be  re- 
versed ;  that  life  is  the  finest  of  the  Fine 
Arts ;  that  it  has  to  be  learned  with  life- 
long patience,  and  that  the  years  of  our 
pilgrimage  are  all  too  short  to  master  it 

triumphantly. 

Pax  Vobiscunif  p.  31. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      229 

November  lyth. 

Christ's  life  outwardly  was  one  of  the 

most  troubled  lives  that  was  ever  lived  : 

Tempest  and  tumult,  tumult  and  tempest, 

the  waves  breaking  over  it  all  the  time 

till  the  worn  body  was  laid  in  the  grave. 

But  the   inner    life  was  a  sea  of   glass. 

The  great  calm  was  always  there.      At 

any  moment   you  might   have  gone    to 

Him  and  found  Eest. 

Pax  Vobiscum,  p.  35. 

November  i8tb. 
The  creation  of  a  new  heart,  the  re- 
newing of  a  right  spirit  is  an  omnipotent 
work  of  God.  Leave  it  to  the  Creator. 
"  He  which  hath  begun  a  good  work  in 
you  will  perfect  it  unto  that  day." 

The  Changed  Life,  p.  57. 


^^ 


"^^ 


30  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 


November  igth. 

To  become  like  Christ  is  the  only 
thing  in  the  world  worth  caring  for,  the 
thing  before  which  every  ambition  of 
man  is  folly,  and  all  lower  achievement 
vain.  Those  only  who  make  this  quest 
the  supreme  desire  and  passion  of  their 
lives  can  even  begin  to  hope  to  reach  it. 
The  Changed  Life,  p.  57. 

November  20th 
A  religion  of  effortless  adoration  may 
be  a  religion  for  an  angel  but  never  for 
a  man.  Not  in  the  contemplative,  but  in 
the  active,  lies  true  hope ;  not  in  rapt- 
ure, but  in  reality,  lies  true  life ;  not  in 
the  realm  of  ideals,  but  among  tangible 
things,  is  man's  sanctification  wrought. 
27ie  Changed  Life^  p.  58. 


FROM  HENRT  BRUMMOND.      231 

November  21st, 

Nothing  ever  for  a  moment  broke  the 
serenity  of  Christ's  life  on  earth.  Mis- 
fortune could  not  reach  Him  ;  He  had 
no  fortune.  Food,  raiment,  money — 
fountain-heads  of  half  the  world's  weari- 
ness— He  simply  did  not  care  for  ;  they 
played  no  part  in  His  life ;  He  "  took 
no  thought "  for  them.  It  was  impossi- 
ble to  affect  Him  by  lowering  His  repu- 
tation ;  He  had  already  made  Himself  of 
no  reputation.  He  was  dumb  before  in- 
sult. When  He  was  reviled,  He  reviled 
not  again.  In  fact,  there  was  nothing 
that  the  world  could  do  to  Him^  that 
could  ruffle  the  surface  of  His  spirit. 

Pax  Vobiscum^  p.  36. 


232  BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

November  22d. 
Life  is  the  cradle  of  eternity.  As  the 
man  is  to  the  animal  in  the  slowness  of 
his  evolution,  so  is  the  spiritual  man  to 
the  natural  man.  Foundations  which 
have  to  bear  the  weight  of  an  eternal  life 
must  be  surely  laid.  Character  is  to 
wear  forever  ;  who  will  wonder  or  grudge 
that  it  cannot  be  developed  in  a  day  ? 
The  Changed  Life,  p.  55. 

November  2^d, 
To  await  the  growing  of  a  soul  is  an 
almost  Divine  act  of  faith.  How  par- 
donable, surely,  the  impatience  of  de- 
formity with  itself,  of  a  consciously  des- 
picable character  standing  before  Christ, 
wondering,  yearning,  hungering  to  be 
like  that  ?     Yet  must  one  trust  the  pro- 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      233 


cess  fearlessly,  and  without  misgiving. 
"  The  Lord  the  Spirit "  will  do  His  part. 
The  tempting  expedient  is,  in  haste  for 
abrupt  or  visible  progress,  to  try  some 
method  less  spiritual,  or  to  defeat  the 
end  by  watching  for  eflfects  instead  of 
keeping  the  eye  on  the  Cause. 

The  Changed  Lifey  p.  56. 


November  24th. 

The  Image  of  Christ  that  is  forming 
within  us — that  is  life's  one  charge.  Let 
every  project  stand  aside  for  that.  "  Till 
Christ  be  formed,"  no  man's  work  is  fin- 
ished, no  religion  crowned,  no  life  has 
fulfilled  its  end.  Is  the  infinite  task 
begun?  "Wlien,  how,  are  we  to  be 
different?     Time    cannot    change    men. 


234         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

Death  cannot  change  men.     Christ  can. 
Wherefore  put  on  Christ 

The  Changed  Life^  p.  G2. 


November  2^th. 

Christ  saw  that  men  took  life  pain- 
fully. To  some  it  was  a  weariness,  to 
others  a  failure,  to  many  a  tragedy,  to  all 
a  struggle  and  a  pain.  How  to  carry 
this  burden  of  life  had  been  the  whole 
world's  problem.  It  is  still  the  whole 
world's  problem.  And  here  is  Christ's 
solution.  "  Carry  it  as  I  do.  Take 
life  as  I  take  it.  Look  at  it  from  My 
point  of  view.  Interpret  it  upon  My 
principles.  Take  My  yoke  and  learn 
of  Me,  and  you  will  find  it  easy.  For 
My  yoke  is  easy,  works  easily,  sits  right 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,      235 

upon   the  shoulders,    and   therefore  My 

burden  is  light. 

Pax  Vobiscum,  p.  44. 

November  26th, 
There  is  a  disease  called  "  touchiness  " 
— a  disease  which,  in  spite  of  its  inno- 
cent name,  is  one  of  the  gravest  sources 
of  restlessness  in  the  world.  Touchi- 
ness, when  it  becomes  chronic,  is  a  mor- 
bid condition  of  the  inward  disposition. 
It  is  self-love  inflamed  to  the  acute  point. 
.  .  .  The  cure  is  to  shift  the  yoke  to 
some  other  place  ;  to  let  men  and  things 
touch  us  through  some  new  and  perhaps 
as  yet  unused  part  of  our  nature ;  to  be- 
come meek  and  lowly  in  heart  while  the 
old  nature  is  becoming  numb  from  want 

of  use. 

Pax  VobiscuTrty  pp.  45,  46. 


236         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

November  27th, 
Christ's  yoke  is  simply  His  secret 
for  the  alleviation  of  human  life,  His 
prescription  for  the  best  and  happiest 
method  of  living.  Men  harness  them- 
selves to  the  work  and  stress  of  the 
world  in  clumsy  and  unnatural  ways. 
The  harness  they  put  on  is  antiquated. 
A  rough,  ill-fitted  collar  at  the  best,  they 
make  its  strain  and  friction  past  endur- 
ing, by  placing  it  where  the  neck  is  most 
sensitive ;  and  by  mere  continuous  irri- 
tation this  sensitiveness  increases  until 
the  whole  nature  is  quick  and  sore. 

Pax  VoUscum,  p.  45. 

November  28th. 

No  one  can  get  Joy  by  merely  ask- 
ing for  it.     It  is  one  of  the  ripest  fruits 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      237 

of  the  Christian  life,  and,  like  all  fruits, 

must  be  grown. 

Pax  Vohiscum^  p.  50. 

November  2gtb. 
Christ  is  the  source  of  Joy  to  men  in 
the  sense  in  which  He  is  the  source  of 
Rest.  His  people  share  His  life,  and 
therefore  share  its  consequences,  and 
one  of  these  is  Joy.  His  method  of 
living  is  one  that  in  the  nature  of  things 
produces  Joy.  When  He  spoke  of  His 
Joy^remaining  with  us  He  meant  in  part 
that  the  causes  which  produced  it  should 
continue  to  act.  His  followers,  that  is  to 
say,  by  repeating  His  life  would  expe- 
rience its  accompaniments.  His  Joy, 
His  kind  of  Joy,   would    remain   with 

them. 

Pax  Vobiscum,  p.  54. 


238         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS. 

November  30th, 
Think  of  it,  the  past  is  not  only  fo- 
cussed  there,  in  a  man's  soul,  it  is 
there.  How  could  it  be  reflected  from 
there  if  it  were  not  there  ?  All  things 
that  he  has  ever  seen,  known,  felt,  be- 
lieved of  the  surrounding  world  are  now 
within  him,  have  become  part  of  him,  in 
part  are  him — he  has  been  changed  into 
their  image.  He  may  deny  it,  he  may 
resent  it,  but  they  are  there.  They  do 
not  adhere  to  him,  they  are  transfused 
through  him.  He  cannot  alter  or  rub 
them  out.  They  are  not  in  his  memory, 
they  are  in  him.  His  soul  is  as  they 
have  filled  it,  made  it,  left  it. 

The  Changed  Life,  p.  27. 


DECEMBER. 


December   ist. 

Temper  is  significant,  not  in  what  it 
is  alone  but  in  what  it  reveals.  ...  It 
is  a  test  for  love,  a  symptom,  a  revelation 
of  an  unloving  nature  at  bottom.  It  is 
the  intermittent  fever  which  bespeaks 
unintermittent  disease  within  ;  the  occa- 
sional bubble  escaping  to  the  surface 
which  betrays  some  rottenness  under- 
neath; a  sample  of  the  most  hidden 
products  of  the  soul  dropped  involun- 
tarily when  off  one's  guard ;  in  a  word, 
the  lightning  form  of  a  hundred  hideous 
and  un-Christian  sins. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World^  p.  34. 


242         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

December  2d, 
You  will  find,  as  you  look  back  upon 
your  life,  that  the  moments  that  stand 
out,  the  moments  when  you  have  really 
lived,  are  the  moments  when  you  have 
done  things  in  a  spirit  of  love.  As  mem- 
ory scans  the  past,  above  and  beyond  all 
the  transitory  pleasures  of  life  there  leap 
forward  those  supreme  hours  when  you 
have  been  enabled  to  do  unnoticed  kind- 
nesses to  those  round  about  you,  things 
too  trifling  to  speak  about,  but  which  you 
feel  have  entered  into  your  eternal  life. 
The  Greatest  IViing  in  the  World,  p.  60. 

December  ^d. 
If  events  change  men,  much  more  per- 
sons.    No  man  can  meet  another  on  the 
street  without  making  some  mark  upon 


:l 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMONB.      243 

him.  We  say  we  exchange  words  when 
we  meet ;  what  we  exchange  is  souls. 
And  when  intercourse  is  very  close  and 
very  frequent,  so  complete  is  this  ex- 
change that  recognizable  bits  of  the  one 
soul  begin  to  show  in  the  other's  nature, 
and  the  second  is  conscious  of  a  similar 
and  growing  debt  to  the  first. 

The  Changed  Life^  p.  30. 

December  4th, 

In  the  natural  world  we  absorb  heat, 
breathe  air,  draw  on  Environment  all 
but  automatically  for  meat  and  drink, 
for  the  nourishment  of  the  senses,  for 
mental  stimulus,  for  all  that,  penetrating 
us  from  without,  can  prolong,  enrich, 
and  elevate  life.  But  in  the  spiritual 
world  we  have  all  this  to  learn.     We  are 


244         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

new  creatures,  and  even  the  bare  living 
has  to  be  acquired. 

Natural  Laic,  p.  267. 

December  ^th. 
The  great  point  in  learning  to  live  the 
spiritual  life  is  to  live  naturally.  As 
closely  as  possible  we  must  follow  the 
broad,  clear  lines  of  the  natural  life. 
And  there  are  three  things  especially 
which  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  keep  con- 
tinually in  view.  The  first  is  that  the 
organism  contains  within  itself  only  one- 
half  of  what  is  essential  to  life;  the 
second  is  that  the  other  half  is  contained 
in  the  Environment ;  the  third,  that  the 
condition  of  receptivity  is  simple  union 
between  the  organism  and  the  Environ- 
ment. 

Natural  Law,  p.  268. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      245 

December  6th, 
To  say  that  the  organism  contains 
within  itself  only  one-half  of  what  is 
essential  to  life,  is  to  repeat  the  evan- 
gelical confession,  so  worn  and  yet  so 
true  to  universal  experience,  of  the  utter 

helplessness  of  man. 

Natural  Law^  p.  268. 

December  7th. 
Who  has  not  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  he  is  but  a  part,  a  fraction  of  some 
larger  whole?  Who  does  not  miss  at 
every  turn  of  his  life  an  absent  God? 
That  man  is  but  a  part,  he  knows,  for 
there  is  room  in  him  for  more.  That 
God  is  the  other  part,  he  feels,  because 
at  times  He  satisfies  his  need.  Who 
does  not  tremble  often  under  that  sick- 
lier symptom  of  his  incompleteness,  his 


246         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

want  of  spiritual  energy,  liis  helplessness 
with  sin?  But  now  he  understands 
both — the  void  in  his  life,  the  power- 
lessness  of  his  will.  He  understands 
that,  like  all  other  energy,  spiritual 
power  is  contained  in  Environment. 
He  finds  here  at  last  the  true  root  of  all 
human  frailty,  emptiness,  nothingness, 
sin.  This  is  why  "  without  Me  ye  can 
do  nothing."  Powerless  is  the  normal 
state  not  only  of  this  but  of  every  organ- 
ism— of  every  organism  apart  from  its 

Environment. 

Natural  Law^  p.  268. 

December  8th, 

To  seize  continuously  the  opportunity 
of  more  and  more  perfect  adjustment  to 
better  and  higher  conditions,  to  balance 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMONB.      247 

some  inward  evil  with  some  purer  influ- 
ence acting  from  without,  in  a  word  to 
make  our  Environment  at  the  same  time 
that  it  is  making  us — these  are  the 
secrets  of  a  well-ordered  and  successful 

life. 

Natural  LatCy  p.  256. 

December  gth. 

In  the  spiritual  world  the  subtle  in- 
fluences which  form  and  transform  the 
soul  are  Heredity  and  Environment. 
And  here  especially,  where  all  is  invisi- 
ble, where  much  that  we  feel  to  be  real 
is  yet  so  ill-defined,  it  becomes  of  vital 
practical  moment  to  clarify  the  atmos- 
phere as  far  as  possible  with  conceptions 
borrowed  from  the  natural  life. 

Natural  Law^  p.  256. 


248         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

December  loth. 

These  lower  correspondences  are  in 
their  nature  unfitted  for  an  Eternal  Life. 
Even  if  they  were  perfect  in  their  rela- 
tion to  their  Environment,  they  would 
still  not  be  Eternal.  However  opposed, 
apparently,  to  the  scientific  definition 
of  Eternal  Life,  it  is  yet  true  that  per- 
fect correspondence  with  Environment 
is  not  Eternal  Life.  .  .  .  An  Eter- 
nal Life  demands  an  Eternal  Environ- 
ment. 

Natural  Law,  p.  245. 


December  nth* 

On  what  does  the  Christian  argument 
for  Immortality  really  rest?  It  stands 
upon  the  pedestal  on  which  the   theo- 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      249 

logian    rests    the    whole    of    historical 

Christianity — the  Eesurrection  of  Jesus 

Christ. 

Natural  Law^  p.  234 

December  12th. 

The  soul  which  has  no  correspondence 
with  the  spiritual  environment  is  spirit- 
ually dead.  It  may  be  that  it  never 
possessed  .  .  .  the  spiritual  ear,  or 
a  heart  which  throbbed  in  response  to 
the  love  of  God.  If  so,  having  never 
lived,  it  cannot  be  said  to  have  died. 
But  not  to  have  these  correspondences 
is  to  be  in  the  state  of  Death.  To  the 
spiritual  world,  to  the  Divine  Environ- 
ment, it  is  dead — as  a  stone  which  has 
never  lived  is  dead  to  the  environment 
of  the  organic  world. 

Natural  Law^  p.  177. 


250         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

December  i^th. 
The  humanity  of  what  is  called  "  sud- 
den conversion  "  has  never  been  insisted 
on  as  it  deserves.  .  .  .  While  growth 
is  a  slow  and  gradual  process,  the  change 
from  Death  to  Life,  alike  in  the  natural 
and  spiritual  spheres,  is  the  work  of  the 
moment.  Whatever  the  conscious  hour 
of  the  second  birth  may  be — in  the  case 
of  an  adult  it  is  probably  defined  by  the 
first  real  victory  over  sin — it  is  certain 
that  on  biological  principles  the  real 
turning-point  is  literally  a  moment. 

Natural  Law^  p.  184. 

December  J4th 

Christ  says  we  must  hate  life.  Now, 
this  does  not  apply  to  all  life.  It  is 
"  life  in  this  world  "  that  is  to  be  hated. 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      251 

For  life  in  this  world  implies  conformity 
to  this  world.  It  may  not  mean  pursu- 
ing worldly  pleasures,  or  mixing  with 
worldly  sets;  but  a  subtler  thing  than 
that — a  silent  deference  to  worldly  opin- 
ion; an  almost  unconscious  lowering  of 
religious  tone  to  the  level  of  the  worldly- 
religious  world  around;  a  subdued  re- 
sistance to  the  soul's  delicate  promptings 
to  greater  consecration,  out  of  deference 
to  "  breadth  "  or  fear  of  ridicule.  These, 
and  such  things,  are  what  Christ  tells  us 
we  must  hate.  For  these  things  are  of 
the  very  essence  of  worldliness.  "  If 
any  man  love  the  world,"  even  in  this 
sense,  "  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in 

him." 

Natural  Law,  p.  197. 


252         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

December  i^th. 

To  correspond  with  the  God  of  Sci- 
ence, the  Eternal  Unknowable,  would  be 
everlasting  existence  ;  to  correspond  with 
"the  true  God  and  Jesus  Christ,"  is 
Eternal  Life.  The  quality  of  the  Eternal 
Life  alone  makes  the  heaven  ;  mere  ever- 
lastingness  might  be  no  boon.  Even  the 
brief  span  of  the  temporal  life  is  too  long 
for  those  who  spend  its  years  in  sorrow. 
Natural  Law^  p.  220. 

December  i6th. 
The  relation  between  the  spiritual 
man  and  his  Environment  is,  in  theolo- 
gical language,  a  filial  relation.  With 
the  new  Spirit,  the  filial  correspondence, 
he  knows  the  Father — and  this  is  Life 
Eternal.     This  is  not  only  the  real  re- 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      253 

lation,  but  the  only  possible  relation: 
"  Neither  knoweth  any  man  the  Father 
save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the 
Son  will  reveal  Him."  And  this  on 
purely  natural  grounds. 

Natural  Law,  p.  229. 

December  17th. 

Communion  with  God — can  it  be  de- 
monstrated in  terms  of  Science  that  this 
is  a  correspondence  which  will  never 
break?  We  do  not  appeal  to  Science 
for  such  a  testimony.  We  have  asked 
for  its  conception  of  an  Eternal  Life ; 
and  we  have  received  for  answer  that 
Eternal  Life  would  consist  in  a  corre- 
spondence which  should  never  cease,  with 
an  Environment  which  should  never  pass 
away.     And  yet  what  w  ould  Science  de- 


254         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

mand  of  a  perfect  correspondence  that 
is  not  met  by  this,  the  knowing  of  God  ? 
There  is  no  other  correspondence  which 
could  satisfy  one  at  least  of  the  condi- 
tions. Not  one  could  be  named  which 
would  not  bear  on  the  face  of  it  the  mark 
and  pledge  of  its  mortality.  But  this, 
to  know  God,  stands  alone. 

Natural  Law,  p.  320. 

December   J  8th 

The  misgiving  which  will  creep  some- 
times over  the  brightest  faith  has  already 
received  its  expression  and  its  rebuke  : 
"Who  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of 
Christ?  Shall  tribulation,  or  distress, 
or  persecution,  or  famine,  or  nakedness, 
or  peril,  or  sword  ? "  Shall  these 
"  changes   in   the  physical  state  of    the 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND,      255 

environpient "  which  threaten  death  to 
the  natural  man,  destroy  the  spiritual? 
Shall  death,  or  life,  or  angels,  or  princi- 
palities, or  powers,  arrest  or  tamper  with 
his  eternal  correspondences  ?  "  Nay,  in 
all  these  things  we  are  more  than  con- 
querors through  Him  that  loved  us. 
For  I  am  persuaded  that  neither  death, 
nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities, 
nor  powers,  nor  things  present,  nor 
things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth, 
nor  any  other  creature,  shall  be  able  to 
separate  us  from  the  love  of  God,  which 
is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord."     Kom.  viii. 

35-39. 

Natural  Law,  p.  230. 

December  igth. 
We  find  that  man,  or  the  spiritual  man, 
is  equipped  with  two  sets  of  correspond- 


256  BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

ences.  One  set  possesses  the.  quality 
of  everlastingness,  the  other  is  temporal. 
But  unless  these  are  separated  by  some 
means  the  temporal  will  continue  to  im- 
pair and  hinder  the  eternal.  The  final 
preparation,  therefore,  for  the  inheriting 
of  Eternal  Life  must  consist  in  the 
abandonment  of  the  non-eternal  ele- 
ments. These  must  be  unloosed  and 
dissociated  from  the  higher  elements. 
And  this  is  effected  by  a  closing  catas- 
trophe— Death. 

Natural  Law,  p.  248. 

December  20th. 

Heredity  and  Environment  are  the 
master-influences  of  the  organic  world. 
These  have  made  all  of  us  what  we  are. 
These  forces  are  still  ceaselessly  playing 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      257 

upon  all  our  lives.  And  he  who  truly 
understands  these  influences;  he  who 
has  decided  how  much  to  allow  to  each ; 
he  who  can  regulate  new  forces  as  they 
arise,  or  adjust  them  to  the  old,  so  di- 
recting them  as  at  one  moment  to  make 
them  co-operate,  at  another  to  counter- 
act one  another,  understands  the  ration- 
ale of  personal  development. 

Natural  aw^  p.  iy255. 

December  21st. 

It  is  the  Law  of  Influence  that  ive  he- 
come  like  those  whom  tue  habituaUy  admire. 
.  .  .  Through  all  the  range  of  litera- 
ture, of  history,  and  biography  this  law 
presides.  Men  are  all  mosaics  of  other 
men.  There  was  a  savour  of  David  about 
Jonathan  and  a  savour  of  Jonathan  about 


258         BEAUTIFUL   THOUGHTS 

David.  Jean  Valjean,  in  the  masterpiece 
of  Victor  Hugo,  is  Bishop  Bienvenu 
risen  from  the  dead.  Metempsychosis  is 
a  fact. 

The  Changed  Life,  p.  31. 

December  22d. 

Can  we  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that 
the  religious  opinions  of  mankind  are  in 
a  state  of  flux?  And  when  we  regard 
the  uncertainty  of  current  beliefs,  the 
war  of  creeds,  the  havoc  of  inevitable  as 
well  as  of  idle  doubt,  the  reluctant  aban- 
donment of  early  faith  by  those  who 
would  cherish  it  longer  if  they  could,  is 
it  not  plain  that  the  one  thing  thinking 
men  are  waiting  for  is  the  introduction 
of  Law  among  the  Phenomena  of  the 
Spiritual  World  ?     When  that  comes  we 


FROM  HENRY  DRUMMOND.      259 

shall  offer  to  such  men  a  truly  scientific 

theology.     And  the  Eeign  of  Law  will 

transform  the  whole  Spiritual  World  as 

it  has  already  transformed  the  Natural 

World. 

Natural  Law,  Preface,  p.  ix. 

December  2^d. 
We  have  Truth  in  Nature  as  it  came 
from  God.  And  it  has  to  be  read  with 
the  same  unbiassed  mind,  the  same  open 
eye,  the  same  faith,  and  the  same  rever- 
ence as  all  other  Revelation.  All  that  is 
found  there,  whatever  its  place  in  The- 
ology, whatever  its  orthodoxy  or  hetero- 
doxy, whatever  its  narrowness  or  its 
breadth,  we  are  bound  to  accept  as  Doc- 
trine from  which  on  the  lines  of  Science 

there  is  no  escape. 

Natural  Law,  Preface,  p.  xi. 


260         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

December  24th. 

In  Nature  generally,  we  come  upon 
new  Laws  as  we  pass  from  lower  to 
higher  kingdoms,  the  old  still  remaining 
in  force,  the  newer  Laws  which  one 
would  expect  to  meet  in  the  Spiritual 
World  would  so  transcend  and  over- 
whelm the  older  as  to  make  the  analogy 
or  identity,  even  if  traced,  of  no  practi- 
cal use.  The  new  Laws  would  represent 
operations  and  energies  so  diiFerent,  and 
so  much  more  elevated,  that  they  would 
afford    the   true   keys  to   the    Spiritual 

World. 

Natural  Law,  p.  47. 

December  2^th. 

The  visible  is  the  ladder  up  to  the  in- 
visible ;  the  temporal  is  but  the  scaffold- 


FROM  HENRY  DRXIMMOND.      261 

ing  of  the  eternal.  And  when  the  last 
immaterial  souls  have  climbed  through 
this  material  to  God,  the  scaffolding 
shall  be  taken  down,  and  the  earth  dis- 
solved with  fervent  heat — not  because  it 
was  base,  but  because  its  work  is  done. 
Natural  Law,  p.  57. 


December  26th. 

The  natural  man  belongs  essentially 
to  this  present  order  of  things.  He  is 
endowed  simply  with  a  high  quality  of 
the  natural  animal  Life.  But  it  is  Life 
of  so  poor  a  quality  that  it  is  not  Life  at 
all.  He  that  hath  not  the  Son  liatli  not 
Life ;  but  he  that  hath  the  Son  hath 
Life — a  new  and  distinct  and  super- 
natural endowment.     He  is  not  of  this 


262         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

world.     He  is  of  the  timeless  state,  of 

Eternity.     It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  he 

shall  be. 

Natural  Law,  p.  82. 

December  2ytK 

The  gradualness  of  growth  is  a  char- 
acteristic which  strikes  the  simplest  ob- 
server. Long  before  the  word  Evolu- 
tion was  coined  Christ  applied  it  in  this 
very  connection — ''  First  the  blade,  then 
the  ear,  then  the  full  com  in  the  ear." 
It  is  well  known  also  to  those  who  study 
the  parables  of  Nature  that  there  is  an 
ascending  scale  of  slowness  as  we  rise  in 
the  scale  of  Life.  Growth  is  most  grad- 
ual in  the  highest  forms.  Man  attains 
his  maturity  after  a  score  of  years  ;  the 
monad  completes  its  humble  cycle  in  a 


FROM  HENR7  DRUMMOND,      263 

day.     What  wonder  if   development  be 

tardy  in  the  Creature  of  Eternity  ?     A 

Christian's  sun  has  sometimes  set,  and  a 

critical  world  has  seen  as  yet  no  corn  in 

the   ear.     As   yet ?     "As  yet,"  in   this 

long  Life,  has  not  begun.     Grant  him 

the  years  proportionate  to  his  place  in 

the  scale  of  Life.     "The  time  of  harvest 

is  not  yet" 

Natural  Law,  p.  92. 

December  28th. 

Salvation  is  a  definite  process.  If  a 
man  refuse  to  submit  himself  to  that 
process,  clearly  he  cannot  have  the  bene- 
fits of  it.  "  As  many  as  received  Him 
to  them  gave  He  power  to  become  the 
sons  of  God."  He  does  not  avail  him- 
self of  this  power.     It  may  be  mere  care- 


264:         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

lessness  or  apathy.  Nevertheless  the 
neglect  is  fatal.  He  cannot  escape  be- 
cause he  Yv^ill  not. 

Natural  Law^  p.  109. 


December  2gth. 

The  end  of  Salvation  is  perfection, 
the  Christ-like  mind,  character,  and  life. 
Morality  is  on  the  way  to  this  perfec- 
tion ;  it  may  go  a  considerable  distance 
toward  it,  but  it  can  never  reach  it. 
Only  Life  can  do  that.  ...  Morality 
can  never  reach  perfection;  Life  must 
For  the  Life  must  develop  out  accord- 
ing to  its  tj^e ;  and  being  a  germ  of 
the  Christ-life,  it  must  unfold  into  a 
Christ 

Natural  Law,  p.  128. 


FROM  HENBT  DRVMMOND.      265 

December  joth. 

Perfect  life  is  not  merely  the  possess- 
ing of  perfect  functions,  but  of  perfect 
functions  perfectly  adjusted  to  each 
other,  and  all  conspiring  to  a  single  re- 
sult, the  perfect  working  of  the  whole 
organism.  It  is  not  said  that  the  char- 
acter will  develop  in  all  its  fulness  in 
this  life.  That  were  a  time  too  short  for 
an  Evolution  so  magnificent.  In  this 
world  only  the  comless'  ear  is  seen ; 
sometimes  only  the  small  yet  still  pro- 
phetic blade. 

Natwal  Laic^  p.  129. 

December  31st, 

The  immortal  soul  must  give  itself  to 
something  that  is  immortal.  And  the 
only  immortal  things  are  these  :    "  Now 


266         BEAUTIFUL  THOUGHTS 

abideth  faith,  hope,  love,  but  the  greatest 
of  these  is  love." 

Some  think  the  time  may  come  when 
two  of  these  three  things  will  also  pass 
away — faith  into  sight,  hope  into  fruition. 
Paul  does  not  say  so.  We  know  but 
little  now  about  the  conditions  of  the 
life  that  is  to  come.  But  what  is  certain 
is  that  Love  must  last.  God,  the  Eternal ' 
God,  is  Love.  Covet  therefore  that 
everlasting  gift. 

Tlie  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World,  pp.  54,  55. 


INDEX. 


INDEX, 


Abiding  in  the  Vine,  178. 
Abundant  love,  51. 
Agnostic,  57,  58. 
Agnosticism,  145. 
Alchemy  of  influence,  257, 
Anxious  thought,  49 
Atheists,  34. 

Backsliding,  188. 
Bad-temi)er,  155. 
Balance,  29. 
Being  still,  45. 
Belief,  18. 

in  God,  60. 
Besetting  sin,  80. 
Bio-genesis,  20. 
Born  of  the  Spirit,  167. 

Capacity  for  Heaven,  34. 
Ceaseless  practice,  157. 


270  INDEX, 


Chance,  226. 

Change  comes  not  of  ourselves,  226 

Character,  22. 

a  unity,  222. 
Charity,  11,  17. 
Child-spirit,  141. 
Christ  formed  in  us,  159, 162,  172. 

our  companion,  163,  164. 

the  source  of  Joy,  237. 
Christ-life,  48. 
Christ's  inner  life,  229. 

serenity,  231. 

yoke,  154,  236. 
Christian  character,  199. 

graces,  how  acquired,  182. 

life  not  vague,  160. 
Christianity  heals,  187. 

the  philosophy  of  life,  185. 
Communion  with  God,  54,  253. 
Completed  life,  179. 
Concentration,  89. 
Conditions  of  growth,  45,  46. 

of  the  spiritual  life,  125,  126o 
Conformity  to  the  Ideal,  175. 

to  Type,  176,  177,  209. 
Correspondences,  52. 


INDEX.  271 


Courtesy,  153. 
Crucifixion  of  the  flesh,  78. 


Darkness,  62. 

Dead,  57, 

Death,  58,  120,  123,  124. 

the  road  to  Life,  183. 
Deeds  of  love,  93. 
Degeneration,  28,  30,  31,  32,  189. 
Dependence  upon  God,  139. 
Development  dependent,  65,  66. 
Difficulty  of  grasping  truth,  26. 
Distinctions  between  men,  197. 
Doubt,  the  synonym  for  sorrow,  194. 
Dwarfing  a  soul,  68. 

Earthly  Mind,  54. 

Earth's  attraction,  194. 

Elements  in  organism,  three,  174. 

Eloquence,  44. 

Energies,  47. 

Environment,  113,  115,  116,  140. 

a  cause,  67. 
Envy,  59. 
Escape  from  evil,  35. 


272  INDEX. 


Eternal  Life,  100-103,  105,  106,  110,  112,  119, 

248. 
Evading  self-denial,  90. 
Evil  temper,  69. 
Evolution,  30. 
Exchange  of  souls,  242. 
Exercise  necessary,  25. 

Failures,  41. 

Filial  relation,  252. 

Final  tests  of  Eeligion,  212 

Fitness  for  eternal  life,  252. 

Fractional  life,  137,  151. 

Friction  of  every-day  life,  181. 

Friendship,  138. 

From  above,  18. 

Fruit -bearing,  141. 

Fuller  and  richer  life,  100. 

Giving,  69. 

Goal  of  Evolution,  179. 
God  in  Nature,  61. 
Good  company,  224. 
Great  growth  unseen,  143. 
Growth,  42,  46,  110. 
gradual,  262. 


INDEX,  273 


Growth  in  grace,  117. 
of  fruit,  195,  197. 
Guilelessness,  72. 

Habetual  sin,  79. 
Happiness,  43. 

how  to  secure,  196. 
Hating  life,  250. 
Heart-disease,  82. 
Helplessness  of  man,  244. 
Heredity  and  Environment,  127-131,  247,  256. 
Higher  Life,  The,  152. 
Human  Inability,  178. 
Hunger  of  soul,  168. 

Ill-temper,  241. 
Ill-tempered  person,  84,  85. 
Imitation  and  Reflection,  171. 
Immortality,  248. 
Imperfection  abolished,  123. 
Imperfections,  48. 
Impressed  forces,  222. 
Incarnation,  114. 
Influence,  65. 

for  good,  19. 
Inheritance  of  Eternal  Life,  255. 
18 


274  INDEX. 


Intellect,  9. 
Isolation,  81. 

Joy  must  be  grown,  236. 

Kindness,  50,  69. 
Kingdom  of  Godi  first,  220. 

of  God  within,  218. 
Knowledge,  13. 

Ladder  and  scaflfolding,  260. 

Law,  13. 

Life,  the  cradle  of  eternity,  232. 

Dependence  of,  16. 

one  of  the  Fine  Arts,  228. 

only  from  Life,  175. 
Life-science,  113. 
Likeness  to  Christ,  230. 
Lilies,  41. 
Limitation,  87. 
Live  for  the  Kingdom,  206. 

naturally,  244. 
Living  Spirit,  21. 
Love,  11,  16,  19,  27,  38,  50,  62^ 

alone  endures,  158. 

eternal,  158,  265. 


INDEX,  275 


Love  in  life-work,  153. 

of  Christ,  82. 

of  self,  64. 

of  the  world,  205. 

the  supreme  thing,  165. 
Love's  ingredients,  211. 
Lowliness  brings  Kest,  218. 

Man,  a  moral  animal,  200. 

made  to  grow,  163. 

made  for  Eternity,  261. 
Man's  place  in  Nature,  204. 

sense  of  need,  149. 

soul,  and  its  parts,  238. 
Meekness  and  Lowliness,  181,  219 
Method,  225. 
Misunderstanding,  14. 
Moral  and  not  Christian,  200. 

and  spiritual,  201. 

change,  how  produced,  173. 
Mortification,  76,  86,  91,  94. 
Mystery,  12,  20,  25,  26. 

in  life,  160. 

Natukal  and  spiritual,  53. 

and  spiritual  faculties,  109. 


276  INDEX. 


Natural  and  supernatural,  108. 
Nature  a  part  of  Environment,  107. 

noiseless,  144. 
Neglect,  28,  32. 
New  heart,  229. 

life,  75,  76. 
Newer  laws,  260. 
Nothing  out  of  nothing,  166. 

Old  environments,  83. 
Organic  and  inorganic,  198,  208. 

effects,  187. 
Organisms,  52. 
Orthodoxy,  193. 

Paeasites,  184. 
Parasitism,  187. 
Patience,  44. 
Patient  endurance,  72. 

waiting  for  spiritual  growth,  232« 
Peace  on  earth,  45. 
Perfect  life,  265. 
Perfection,  264. 
Personal  helplessness,  142. 
Pessimism,  146. 
Photograph  prints,  149. 


INDEX.  277 


Phrases,  180. 

Physical  Laws,  17. 

Pleasure-giving,  33. 

Possibilities  of  Life,  29. 

Power  over  temptation,  84. 

Powerlessness  of  man,  245. 

Practice,  78. 

Preparation,  93. 

Pressure  from  without,  221. 

Prize  within  reach,  210. 

Protoplasm,  167. 

Pure  in  heart,  37. 

Purification,  14. 

Purified  spirit,  86. 

Pursuit  of  happiness,  155. 

Put  on  Christ,  233. 

Putting  off  and  putting  on,  35. 

Eeflecting  the  character  of  Christ,  223. 
Kegeneration,  77,  117,  118,  198. 
Keligion,  47. 

comes  by  law,  96. 
Best,  150. 

and  Peace,  effects  of  former  causes,  227. 

how  found,  183. 
Restlessness,  224. 


278  INDEX. 


Eevelations  in  Nature,  15. 
Eeversion  to  Type,  28. 

Salvation,  36. 

is  of  man's  choice,  263. 

wrought  out,  184. 
Sanctification,  43,  161. 
Science  an  aid  to  faith,  99. 

and  Eeligion,  13. 

and  Kevelation,  16. 
Scientific  faith,  10. 
Search  for  Truth,  193. 
^eek  first  the  Kingdom  of  God,  207. 
Seizing  opportunity,  246,  257. 
Self-denial,  87. 
Sense  of  sight,  37. 

of  sound,  37. 
Separation  from  the  love  of  God,  254c 
Serving  two  masters,  92. 
Side  by  side  with  Christ,  95. 
Sin,  64. 

Slights  looked  for,  182. 
Solidity,  11. 

Soul  to  be  cultivated,  36. 
Sours  life  in  God,  145. 
Spirit  of  Christ,  71. 


INDEX.  279 


Spirit  of  the  living,  111. 
Spiritual  comnmnion,  162. 

death,  63. 

Environment,  132-137. 

Influence  and  Force,  171. 

Life  manifests  itself,  203. 

Life,  The,  10,  27. 

longing,  217. 

possibilities,  202. 

Stature,  49. 

world.  The,  21. 
Spiritual-world  lessons,  243. 
State  of  Death,  249. 
Stature,  48. 

Subterranean  passage,  80. 
Sudden  conversion,  250. 

death,  77. 
Supernatural,  The,  9,  10,  14. 


Temper,  70. 

Test  for  Life,  203. 

Theology,  the  Science  of  God,  165c 

Touchiness,  157,  235. 

True  life  lies  in  reality,  230. 

Truth  a  revelation,  259. 


280  INDEX. 


Uncebtainty  of  current  beliefs,  258. 

Uneasiness,  33. 

Uniqueness  of  Christ's  Kingdom,  208. 

Unknown  God,  61. 

Unlovely  tempers,  70. 

Unloving  and  unloved  211. 

Unnoticed  kindnesses,  243. 

Unrecognizableness,  174:. 

Unselfish  love,  63. 

Unspiritual  man,  59. 

Voice  and  Echo,  112. 

Wasted  life,  90. 

We  love  because  He  loved,  99. 

Widening  Environment,  104. 

Will  power,  213. 

Words  of  Life,  212. 

World's  Problem,  The,  234 


Henry  Drummond's  Works. 


The   Programme  of  Christianity. 

A  New  Address  by  Henry  Drummond,  to  be  issued 
uniform  with  the  previous  booklets.     Price,  35  cents. 

The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World. 

Leatherette,  gilt  top.  Price,  35  cents.  Illustrated  Edi- 
tion, cloth,  price,  $i.oo. 

Pax  Vobiscum. 

The  Second  of  the  Series  of  which  "  The  Greatest  Thing 
in  the  World  "  is  the  First.  Leatherette,  gilt  top.  Price, 
35  cents  ;  Illustrated  Edition,  cloth,  $1.00. 

The  Changed    Life. 

An  Address  by  Henry  Drummond.  The  Third  of  the 
Series.     Gilt  top,  leatherette.    Price,  35  cents. 

Natural   Law  in  the   Spiritual  World. 

By  Henry  Drummond,  F.R.S.E.,  F.G.S.  Cloth,  red 
top,  title  in  gold,  458  pp.     Price,  75  cents. 

"First:"     A  Talk  with    Boys. 

An  Address  delivered  at  Glasgow  to  the  Boys*  Brigade. 
Paper  cover,  lo  cents;  $1.00  per  dozen;  leatherette, 
silver  edges,  35  cents. 

Baxter's  Second   Innings. 

A  Book  for  Boys.     Just  ready,  75  cents. 

author's  only  editions. 


For  sale  by  all  booksellers,  or  sent  by  mail  on  receipt  of  price, 

JAMES  POTT  &  CO.,   Publishers, 

14  &  16  Astor  Place,    New  York. 


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